Wates and Mace also appointed to work on buildings that make up £3bn propject’s first phase

McAleer & Rushe has won the final job on the first three buildings being developed at British Land’s Canada Water scheme in east London.

The Northern Irish contractor has previously worked with the developer on a mixed-use scheme at 10 Portman Square in Westminster while it also worked on British Land’s redevelopment of Yalding House, the former Great Portland Street home of the BBC Music department, Radio 3 and Radio 1.

Canada Water Masterplan - Town Square - email

The Canada Water scheme will include a new town square

At the £3.3bn Canada Water scheme, McAleer & Rushe will build K1 – a six-storey residential block designed by Morris + Company, the former Duggan Morris which disbanded in 2017.

Earlier this week, Building revealed that Wates has signed a pre-construction services agreement for the A1 building, designed by Allies and Morrison, which will run across six and 34 storeys and will include retail and offices as well as 186 residential units.

And Mace has won the A2 building, also designed by Allies and Morrison, after overhauling long-time frontrunner Laing O’Rourke which is believed to have been unable to agree a price with the developer.

A2 will include a leisure centre, retail and workspace in a building that will reach a maximum height of six storeys. Both jobs are understood to have construction values north of £100m.

Despite the news British Land, which earlier this week said completion of Sir Robert McAlpine’s £260m scheme at 100 Liverpool Street and Lendlease’s £140m job at 1 Triton Square have been delayed around six months by the covid-19 pandemic, is understood to have delayed starting work because of uncertainty caused by coronavirus.

Consultants working across all three buildings include project and cost manager Aecom, structural engineer AKT II and services consultant Sweco.

The Canada Water scheme will eventually turn 53 acres of rundown land in south-east London into a new town centre and 3,000 homes. In February, it overcame the last major planning obstacle when London mayor Sadiq Khan decided not to call it in.

The site, which sits between the City and Canary Wharf and is close to Canada Water Underground station, includes the abandoned Daily Mail printworks and the disused Rotherhithe police station.

The overall first phase covers 1.8 million sq ft of mixed-use space, including one million sq ft of workspace and 250,000 sq ft of retail and leisure.

The developer hired Roger Madelin, the man behind Argent’s revamp of King’s Cross, back in 2016 to lead the project.