Canary Wharf Contractors (CWC) is bidding for the £70m fit-out of the redeveloped Spitalfields market scheme in the City of London.

The bid is part of the firm’s plan to expand beyond Canary Wharf and to compete for work on a national and European scale.

The firm cut back its operations last year and made about 100 redundancies as projects in the Canary Wharf development came to an end.

CWC is vying with contractors Interior/Exterior and Bovis Lend Lease for the 70,000 m2 job, called Bishop’s Square, which will be occupied by law firm Allen & Overy.

Bids for the job, designed by interiors specialist Pringle Brandon, are to be submitted early next week. Sir Robert McAlpine is due to complete Foster and Partners’ building envelope in June next year.

The Spitalfields scheme is the second job CWC has bid for in recent months. The firm lost out to Multiplex for a pre-construction role on the 50-storey Arena Central scheme in Birmingham in July.

A source from a rival bidder predicted that CWC would make a strong push to win the Bishop's Square scheme. He said: “They [CWC] want to make a mark.”

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