Norman Foster-designed GLA building will cost £83m over 20 years
Nick Mathiason
The cost of the Greater London Authority’s South Bank HQ at London Bridge City can now be revealed. Estates Gazette has learned that the GLAwill pay rent of £83m over 20 years.
Sources close to the site’s owner, CITMarkborough, confirmed that the GLA will be taking the entire building risk, and that negotiations with the government are based on the assumption that itwill pay rent of over £393 per m2 (£36 per sq ft) over 20 years.
Last week, Lord Archer, a prospective Tory candidate for Mayor, claimed that the 10,590m2 (114,000 sq ft) building would cost Londoners more than £100m. He argued that the option of locating the GLA on London’s South Bank was “horrendously expensive, disruptive, impractical and the worst possible symbol for the new governance of London”.
He added: “I will not waste Londoners’ money on a new palace for bureaucrats.”
Lord Archer’s allegation that the Tower Bridge building would cost £100m has been ridiculed by CIT Markborough and its advisers. Sources close to CIT said that the GLA would struggle to find cheaper accommodation in the capital.
l The BBC’s relocation of its entire news gathering team to LBC hangs on a decision by new director-general Greg Dyke. BBCsources have confirmed that it is the favoured location.
