Lend Lease tipped to develop £5bn Olympic site

Australia-based property group Lend Lease is poised to win more than £5bn (EUR 7.3) of development work on the London 2012 Olympic Village and the adjoining Stratford City urban renewal project, The Financial Times newspaper has reported, citing the Olympic Delivery Authority's ceo David Higgins.

Lend Lease is leading a consortium that is competing against the French builder Bouygues, which had teamed up with UK house builder Barratt Developments. Lend Lease would work together with the East Thames Housing Group and First Base, a social housing development company, 42% controlled by Lend Lease, to develop the two-phase project.

The first phase, worth some £2bn, is expected to start in 2008, with completion planned for late 2011. It includes the development of 4,200 residential dwellings to house the 17,000 athletes expected to attend the Games. The second £3.5bn phase involves the refurbishment of the Olympic Village once the games area finished and the development of up to 500,000 m² of residential, hotel and office buildings to complete the renewal of Stratford City by 2020, the paper said.