Government quango the Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA) will officially begin its search for a private partner to redevelop the 57-acre New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms, SW8, at the start of next year.
Listen to Paul Norman’s interview with Jan Lloyd
The CGMA said this morning it would launch its search via the Official Journal of the European Union in early 2010.
It is seeking a partner to bring forward two connected projects: “The Garden”, a 540,000 sq ft trading hub for fresh produce and other food and flower related activities across 47 acres and a high density mixed-use development on the 10 acres that currently houses the Flower Market.
Value realised from a residential-led development of the 10-acre Flower Market, which sits 400m from the Vauxhall Cross transport exchange, will be used to fund the redevelopment of the remainder of the trading space for the 240 tenants on the rest of the site.
Plans for the site are already being worked up by Foster & Partners while the outline plans for the remainder of the site are being drawn up by Neil Tomlinson Architects.
The CGMA will host the first of two public exhibitions about the outline planning application in November 2009, with a second one following in early 2010 before the application is submitted later in the year.
Jan Lloyd, chief executive of the CGMA, said the project was being brought forward now because redevelopment of the traders’ current space was the priority and it appeared that the turmoil that has hit the property market was easing.
Lloyd added that the mixed-use redevelopment of the Flower Market was likely to include tall buildings and provide an “exciting mixed use link” to the entire Nine Elms, Vauxhall and Battersea opportunity area.
She said the redevelopment of the retail space is likely to include business incubation space and support for businesses on the site as well as a major showcase for the “range and quality of the fresh produce on the market”.
Baroness Brenda Dean, chairman of the Covent Garden Market Authority, said: “The Garden’ is an identity that acknowledges New Covent Garden Market’s heritage but also encompasses the future, as the centre for food and flowers in
“The decision to prepare an outline planning application for the whole site is a major milestone and will help us fulfil our vision and commitment for the best of food and flowers in the heart of
The agents instructed to sell the site are Drivers Jonas, other advisors include King Sturge and Eversheds.
