by Duncan Lamb
British Rail Property Board have selected the London Regeneration Consortium as their development partners for the redevelopment of the 125-acre King’s Cross site in north London — paving the way for Europe’s largest single property project.
The contest for the nomination had come down to a straight choice between Speyhawk (teamed with Sir Robert McAlpine) and the consortium, which comprises Rosehaugh Stanhope and the National Freight Consortium — who own an important 19 acres in the central goodsyard portion of the site.
Indeed, Speyhawk could be forgiven for feeling somewhat rueful now about the initial development brief issued by BR. It stated that the developers should base their submissions on an assumption of common interest in the site.
In reality, by the time the final submissions were being evaluated by BR, LRC had not only the preference of NFC but also the other landowners, British Gas, British Waterways Board and Camden council.
In February, NFC announced that they had an exclusive agreement with the LRC, and NFC Properties’ Henry Lafferty said that they could not “actually understand what BR will gain from public consultation that will help it to choose a developer”.
However, the choice has been made and the development partners will now enter a long period of consultation on a project which could provide around 6.5m sq ft of offices, 200,000 sq ft of business space, 250,000 sq ft of shopping and 500,000 sq ft of housing.
A spokesman for LRC said: “Our objective is to carry out a comprehensive redevelopment of the whole area, bringing new life to King’s Cross and Camden … with architectural diversity and conservation of historic buildings.”
The consortium has commissioned two firms of architects — Norman Foster Associates and Skidmore Owings & Merrill — and one of the various development options that they have designed will have to be selected and refined.
Early estimates put the possible profits from the scheme at around £5bn, with £3.5bn going to British Rail and the other landowners and the balance to the developers.
