The development was started by CCFC who could not find the resources to complete it.
The council took it over.
I am not sure who originally purchased the site but it was certainly a planning problem for the council, a gasworks with contaminated land. It cost £24m and needed £17m to be spent on decontamination. Because it was a gasworks which was I believe originally run by the town council, historically they had some responsibility for this contamination as the original providers of "Town gas" manufactured from coal. By the time of its disposal it was I assume under the ownership of BGas who were by then using natural gas from the North sea and not causing pollution. Normal expectation for decontamination of a site is that the polluter pays.
The build was financed largely by the sale of a portion of the site to Tescos who paid £60m for their part of the site which was inflated because of the added value from the development and draw of the football arena.
Another contribution came from a 50 year lease for the finished Arena sold to ACL for £21m.
The final build cost was £65m, but that includes casino, hotel & exhibition spaces that are of no interest to CCFC. The total cost of the project was £118m including cost of land and fees etc.
Despite being one of the original polluters and arguably responsible for the £17m decontamination costs, the council only invested a nominal £10m, less than the cost of decontamination.
The majority of the cost, £81m came from the Tescos land sale and the sale of the lease to ACL for the finished complex.
That £81m was an increase in the value of the land due to its development as a commercial centre.
It is arguable who "owns" or can claim responsibility for that increase in value.
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