AEG, the operator of Olympia’s new music venue British Airways ARC, has been told it must stop playing music at 10.30pm.
Mr Hitchcox called for reforms to stamp duty, which he said is making London’s properties deeply unattractive to buyers and warned that policies towards non-domiciled residents were driving entrepreneurs away from the city.
His comments came as Yoo, which is redeveloping Olympia with backing from Deutsche Finance International, prepares to open British Airways ARC, a 204-room Hyatt Regency hotel and the first of its bars and restaurants next week. Its office tenants include Premier League.
“We’re still the biggest theatre city in the world,” he said. “We’re still fantastic at music, innovation and starting businesses. For all of our ability to self-deprecate ourselves, we’ve got a lot to shout about.”
Besides Olympia, one of Mr Hitchcox’s best-known projects is The Lakes by Yoo, a celebrity hangout in the Cotswolds.
It is frequented by the likes of Kate Moss, the godmother to one of Mr Hitchcox’s children, Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon, who was the best man at his wedding, and jewellery designer Jade Jagger, who also designed a rural retreat there.
Plans are also under way for a 4.2-acre regeneration project at Shepherd’s Bush Market and a “film quarter” in Camden.
