WHITE CITY UPDATE
from The Times 8 March 2004
By Jenny Davey
MARKS & SPENCER has teamed up with the BBC and Helical Bar, the property developer run by Mike Slade, to carry out a £1.5 billion redevelopment of industrial land close to the BBC's television centre in London's White City, The Times has learnt.
The scheme, which will total up to four million sq ft, is expected to include offices, homes, and possibly a hotel and music recording studio.
The project will bring back to life 43 acres of virtual wasteland and is set to become one of the biggest regeneration schemes in the capital, ranking alongside the 72-acre redevelopment of King's Cross and the 55-acre redevelopment of land at Wembley Stadium.
The partners have formed a development consortium that will also include fellow landowner, Lattice, the gas network operator. Helical Bar, which is working with Morley Fund Management, has been appointed project co-ordinator for the development.
All the partners own large slices of land at White City. Marks & Spencer's site houses distribution space used to create mock-ups of its new shop designs and the BBC's land houses office buildings connected to its Worldwide operations.
Helical Bar's site was previously owned by Dairy Crest. The development land lies to the north of Chelsfield's proposed £1.5 billion shopping centre development. The formation of the partnership represents one of the biggest collaborations between rival landowners in the UK.
The move follows the successful partnership formed between Land Securities, Hammerson and Henderson Global Investors, to carry out the £550 million redevelopment of the Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham.
It is expected the landowners at White City will follow the lead of the Birmingham Alliance and merge their landholdings in order to carry out a single large development and then share the profits. The White City landowners are short-listing firms to draw up a master plan for the site and hope to submit a planning application by spring next year.
The unveiling of the partnership comes as the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham publishes a framework document outlining its strategy for the land at White City today.
In the document, the council says that it envisages the creation of a new urban quarter, involving a thriving mixed-use development.
Ken Livingstone's "London Plan" also identified White City as a key "opportunity area" for redevelopment. The plan suggested the creation of 11,000 jobs and 1,200 homes.
But even though the council is supportive of the developers' plans, it does not want to upset Fulham Football Club, which has been looking for a site in the area for a new stadium.
The football club is believed to have approached the landowners to buy part of the White City site but was rebuffed.
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