Australian construction company Lend Lease has outbid a trio of competitors to secure a £75m west London office contract for Legal & General Property (L&G).
The 350,000 sq ft mixed-use development on Hammersmith Road is the third multi-million contract for one of the UK’s largest institutional property fund managers. Lend Lease previously worked with L&G to develop its City of London headquarters at One Coleman Street, which it completed in 2007. Three years later it undertook L&G’s Central Saint Giles scheme in the West End.
“This latest success capitalises on our strategy of winning repeat work from longstanding clients and adds to our growing pipeline — having secured several major opportunities over the last few months,” explained Lend Lease project director, Dennis Wilson.
Rival bids for the project were also received from the Dutch Royal BAM Group, London-based Mace and Sweden’s Skanska.
With site work due to start work next month, an existing building at 245 Hammersmith Road will be demolished to accommodate the new 10-storey development. When completed in 2017 it will contain Grade A flexible office space and a new retail frontage and public plaza.
In its planning document Lend Lease says it wants to “create a light and airy flexible working space with an improved townscape”.
The new 242,000 sq ft office, designed by Sheppard Robson, will be home to up to 2,000 workers and will be built to maximise natural daylight and feature outdoor roof terraces. It will be capable of accommodating up to 29 tenants. The development will be stepped back from Hammersmith Road, with a new landscaped plaza at the front that leads through to a podium garden.
The public plaza will be landscaped to increase biodiversity and the Hammersmith Road pavement will be fully refurbished.
A business lounge and café will form part of the 13,000 sq ft retail element, “further enhancing the public realm and facilitating social interaction for workers and the wider local community”. To encourage sustainable living, cycle routes and secure storage will be created.
Simon Wilkes is head of business space development at Legal & General Property. “Lend Lease’s appointment on this exciting new development reflects the team’s understanding of our needs, innovative approach and shared commitments to safety, the community and sustainability,” he commented.
“Following this, we feel that we now have the best team in place to deliver what is set to be a milestone development for Hammersmith as a key office location in London.”
Lend Lease Group is a multinational property and infrastructure company headquartered in Sydney. It operates in more than 40 countries around the world but in recent years has courted controversy in its home country.
In late 2012, the Victoria state legislature banned Lend Lease from tendering for government work, due to new laws prohibiting “friendly deals” between building contractors and trade unions. And In 2013 the company was criticised for its involvement in proposals to enlarge a coal port terminal on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef; the work would have involved dredging and dumping waste in the sea.
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