London Olympic press and media centre legacy shortlist revealed
The Olympic Stadium, picture taken by the Stadium webcam on Monday 28 March 2011. Photo: ODA
An “innovation city”, a UK “fashion hub” and a sports-based offering in partnership with Loughborough University have been shortlisted to move into the cavernous media and press centres on the Olympic Park after the Games.
The vast buildings have long been considered among the biggest legacy challenges for the Olympic Park Legacy Company but the chief executive, Andrew Altman, said it had generated “huge amounts of commercial interest”.
Prime minister David Cameron has said he wants the tenants to be part of his vision of a “tech city” stretching from Shoreditch and Old Street to the Stratford Park.
An earlier plan for the BBC to move the studios where it films EastEnders to the Park collapsed amid concerns about its suitability from producers. A plan to turn the media centre into a giant indoor snowdome has not made the shortlist.
The broadcast centre and press centre will house 30,000 journalists during the Games. Afterwards the broadcast centre will offer 95,000 square feet of office space over five floors and 575,000 square feet of commercial space over two floors.
The five-storey press centre will provide around 317,000 square feet of office space with the potential for retail uses on the ground floor.
The OPLC will now enter into negotiations with three shortlisted proposals, whittled down from a long list of 10 that was compiled from 45 original expressions of interest.
Under the proposal for a “fashion hub”, the broadcast centre would offer offices, manufacturing and creative uses while the press centre would become a fashion college, e-tailing centre and a media centre.
A proposed tie-up between Oxylane Group and Loughborough University would offer “leisure, events space, research and education and retail including a major Decathlon store”, while the “iCity” proposal would showcase house post-production companies, graphic designers, digital education and a cloud computing centre.
“The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is already generating a huge amount of commercial interest and the calibre of our shortlist is testament to that,” said Altman. “We have three dynamic bids focused on the creation of thousands of jobs and training opportunities, along with links to Tech City.
“We will now go through their proposals in fine detail to make sure that they can deliver a successful ongoing legacy that will stimulate future commercial interest. Today’s milestone is yet another example of how London is further ahead in legacy planning than any previous host Olympic city.”
The OPLC this month announced tenants for the aquatics centre, the handball arena and the Arcelor Mittal Orbit sculpture. It is running a new tender process for the main stadium after a deal with West Ham collapsed under the weight of legal challenges.
“Having already secured operators for six out of eight of the Olympic Park venues we are close to securing the huge 2012 legacy prize of long-term jobs and growth,” said the mayor of London, Boris Johnson. “It means we can now look forward to the summer Games with confidence that our park is on course to become that thriving, vibrant and prosperous new district we have all been striving for.”
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