Detailed planning permission has been granted for phase one of the 150 000 m2 commercial and residential project in west London, which will include buildings designed by Richard Rogers Partnership and Terry Farrell & Partners.
The regeneration scheme is part of London’s largest redevelopment since Canary Wharf. It will form the centre of a £2bn district the size of Soho.
Developer Paddington Basin Developments Limited expects construction to start in the north part of the basin in the autumn. PBDL director Nick Roberts confirmed that Mace, which is acting as construction consultant on the scheme, was likely to win the construction management contract. Mace is expected to sign pre-letting agreements with tenants this year.
Waterways minister Lord Whitty, who was due to launch the project this week, praised its imaginative use of its canalside location.
The first phase consists of 53 000 m2 of offices, at least 200 residential units and space for leisure and retail uses. Roberts said planning consent for another 37 000 m2 in the north of the basin had also been received. This would have a similar mix of office and residential accommodation. The second phase is due to start in October next year.
Contractor Edmund Nuttall started infrastructure work in the basin, near the junction of the Grand Union and Regent canals, last November, and expects to finish in June. This includes the first complete drainage of the basin since 1909.
QS on the project is Gardiner & Theobald; Gillespies is handling landscape architecture. Developer PBDL, a joint venture between Chelsfield and European Land and Property Developments, is working on the scheme alongside British Waterways, the freehold owner of the canal basin and surrounding land.
The development plan is designed to exploit the basin itself. The area will have a harbourmaster’s building, a pedestrian bridge linking the canal basin to Paddington Station, floating restaurants, and water taxi and waterbus facilities.
British Waterways London regional director Mark Bensted said the scheme would act as a catalyst to improve the surrounding area. Roberts claimed the basin was “an unrivalled location at the very heart of the capital”.
He said: “This development will play a major part in unlocking the tremendous potential that Paddington has, both as a business location and as an exciting new central London destination.”
