The London Development Agency is raising the numberof hotels at its struggling Royals business park in east London to capitalise on an expected rise in business visitors to the area.
The LDA, with development and funding partners Development Securities and Standard Life, has tasked Dutch masterplanner KCAP and architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson with drawing up plans for three hotels each of 150 to 200 bedrooms, plus 50,000 sq ft of offices, on a 4-acre parcel of land at the Docklandssite. Offices had been planned.
The partners had previously proposed just one hotel on the 50-acre Royals site.
Sources said that the decision to build more hotels was made following the announcement of plans to extend local attractions including the AbuDhabi-owned ExCel events centre, E19, and the O2 entertainment complex in Greenwich, SE10.
The new proposals will be lodged with Newham council in December.
Work to overhaul the original masterplan for the last 40 acres of the Royals is also continuing. A finalised masterplan will be submitted next year.
Plans for 1.6m sq ft of offices and 100,000 sq ft of shops at the Royals got consent in 2001. However, the partners struggled to find tenants for the one building speculatively developed – the 242,000 sq ft Building 1000 – so in 2006 instructed KCAP to draw up a revised masterplan. The proposals included 2.25m sq ft of offices, housing, leisure and ancillary shops but were not submitted for council approval.
Newham council bought Building 1000 for £75m in August 2007 for its own use.
