Three chasing £250m US embassy conversion

Mace and Multiplex are both set to receive bid documents for Qatari Diar’s scheme to turn the former US embassy in London into a luxury hotel.

The pair will be joined by Balfour Beatty in pricing the job at 30 Grosvenor Square later this autumn which is understood to have a project value of at least £250m.

Tenders are due back next February with a winner expected in the spring.

Mace and Multiplex are both working for Qatari Diar at its Chelsea Barracks residential job in west London while the developer is one of several firms involved in the Lewisham Gateway housing scheme, the second phase of which was won by Balfour Beatty in the summer.

Sir Robert McAlpine had also been expected to bid Grosvenor Square but it is thought its interest has since cooled.

The work to revamp the building has been designed by David Chipperfield Architects and includes 137 guest rooms, five restaurants, six flagship retail units, a spa and a 1,000-person ballroom. The hotel will be operated by Hong Kong-based Rosewood Hotels.

Careys is carrying out the soft-strip work on the grade II listed building while others working on the scheme include QS Gardiner & Theobald and engineer AKT II. Project manager is Buro Four.

The building was built in 1960 and designed by Eero Saarinen, the acclaimed Finnish-American architect’s only UK project.

The last US embassy staff moved out back in January 2018 into its new building, constructed by McAlpine, at Nine Elms in Vauxhall.

Mace, Multiplex and Balfour Beatty are all chasing the first phase of a huge £1bn mixed-use scheme in Blackfriars for Native Land. The first phase of work is called Western Yards and includes three blocks of 13, 18 and 49 storeys designed by PLP.

The developer had been expected to narrow the shortlist down to two this week but is understood to have put this decision back a few weeks.