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When successful businessmen get involved in football clubs they often unveil ambitious plans and Millwall chairman Peter de Savary is no exception. He is planning a £100m 'Chelsea Village' style development for the area around the New Den that would include homes, shops, restaurants, hotels and a casino. He said that the 2012 Olympics would be the perfect opportunity for the relegation threatened Championship club to capitalise being on the closest club to the City and only four miles (as the crow flies across the Thames) from where most of the Olympic stadia will be built. One does have to bear in mind the old estate agent's adage, 'Location, location, location'. When the New Den came into operation some fifteen years ago it was supposed to trigger social and economic regeneration in the area. There's not much evidence of that with the 1960s Silwood Estate to the north being an example of deprivation, decay and social exclusion. As the Greenwich Mercury put it, 'the New Den is an island in desolate streets that are notoriously intimidating for away fans.' The small businesses that would be displaced by the expansion are far from pleased. Stephen Taylor, a manager for a MOT firm, commented that street crime in the area meant that a casino would be unrealistic. He said, 'You can't go through South Bermondsey station without something happening to you, so people walking around with pockets full of money would not work.'
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