Stephen Schwarzman suffers headaches over $80 million UK property

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Stephen Schwarzman is used to beating his Wall Street rivals. But in the hills of southern England, the Blackstone boss is facing a formidable new opponent: the great crested salamander.

Schwarzman keeps British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves apprised of the difficulties he faces in keeping the amphibians out of the way while working at his $80 million country home in Wiltshire.

Reeves was due to meet Schwarzman for a private dinner in New York on Tuesday night. It was their third meeting and the Treasury secretary's colleagues say the private equity executive told her about his first-hand experience trying to build things in Britain.

“That says a lot about our planning system,” joked one of Reeves’ colleagues. As part of her so-called growth mission, she wants to remove barriers to development and streamline the UK’s planning system.

Blackstone plans to build a massive new data center in Blythe, Northumberland, and Reeves assured Schwarzman on Tuesday that the company is committed to moving quickly on such a project.

Stephen Schwarzman's plans include a lake, eye-catching ornamental structures, a three-story wing, and conversion of the stables into staff housing. Bess Adler/Bloomberg

But there's little she can do to help the salamander problem at the late 17th-century Cornholt Park, a roughly 2,500-acre estate that Schwarzman bought for $80 million in 2022.

The great horned salamander is endangered in parts of Europe, but is still quite common in Britain.

Some had hoped restrictions on salamanders would be eased after Britain left the EU and moved out of the scope of the Habitats Directive, but strict planning permission and extensive ecological surveys are still required.

Consulting ecologists report that Conholt Park has little potential for supporting terrestrial life. [great crested newts]However, it was discovered that reptiles on the site could be injured or killed during construction. A separate report said no salamanders have been found on the site so far.

Schwartzman's plans, which include a new lake, an ornamental structure known as the Eyecatcher, a new three-storey building and converting the stables into staff housing, were approved by Wiltshire Council's planning committee in mid-July.

But according to the planning documents, Schwartzman must adhere to a detailed habitat mitigation and improvement plan prepared by a third-party consultant.

Conholt House and Conholt Park Planning Application

The plan submitted in May included concessions such as weekly biodiversity audits, an on-site ecologist to supervise crews and timing of construction to avoid hibernating amphibians.

At the start of each day, construction workers inspected the entire construction site for amphibians and caught any with gloved hands.

The billionaires’ salamander-related woes won’t end with construction, as mitigation efforts will have to continue for at least 30 years after development is complete. We’ve reached out to Blackstone for comment.

In 2023, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a similar salamander problem. He promised to do whatever it took to protect the salamanders that were threatening plans for an outdoor swimming pool at his Oxfordshire home.

If we have to build a little salamander motel to accommodate them as they travel across the pool, we will do it, he wrote in his Daily Mail column. We will dig new ponds where they can breed. We will create Newtopia!

Meanwhile, Reeves has pledged to speed up the construction of data centres seen as essential to support AI companies, including Blackstone's investment in Blythe in northeast England.

According to documents released by Northumberland County Council, Blackstone could ultimately invest $10 billion in the area, with plans to use the site previously earmarked for the development of an electric vehicle battery gigafactory.

Reeves told New York investors that the new Labor government views data centres as critical national infrastructure.

Schwarzman was one of several high-profile financial executives who met with Reeves during her two-day visit to the city. The Blackstone boss was previously close to former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and was knighted in May.

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