A 43-acre tranche of derelict industrial land in White City, west London, is set to undergo a £1.5bn mixed-use redevelopment under plans from Helical Bar and Marks & Spencer.
The proposed development could become one of the largest regeneration schemes in London, totalling 4m sq ft and providing up to 2m sq ft of office space, 1,200 new homes, a swimming pool and leisure centre, and possibly a hotel and music recording studio.
The development site lies to the north of Chelsfield’s proposed £1.5bn White City retail development, and is currently divided among four landowners. Marks & Spencer owns a distribution centre, just south of the former Dairy Crest packaging plant, owned by Helical Bar and Morley Fund Management. The gas network operator, Lattice, owns an industrial estate on the other side of the railway line from the M&S centre, while the remainder of the land is owned by the BBC in partnership with Land Securities.
The various landowners are expected to pool their landholdings and then share the profits of the development between them, in a manner similar to LandSec, Hammerson and Henderson Global Investors’ agreement with the Bullring in Birmingham.
Helical Bar has been appointed project co-ordinator for the scheme. The landowners are already in the process of shortlisting companies to draw up a masterplan for the site and hope to submit a planning application by next spring.
The news coincides with the release of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s framework document outlining its strategy for White City. The plan envisages the creation of a new urban quarter and the provision of 11,000 new jobs.
However, Fulham Football Club is believed to have approached the landowners to buy part of the White City site in order to build a new stadium. The approach is understood to have been rebuffed.
Source: Freeman News / The Times
