Developer British Land is about to award Mace a high-profile construction management role in the City of London.

Building understands that Mace will be appointed construction manager, project manager, and quantity surveyor on the £160m Ropemaker Place scheme next week.

This site, located between Moorgate and Liverpool Street in the City, has detailed planning consent for a 505,000 ft², 23-storey building. Work is expected to start on site later this year with completion scheduled for mid-2009.

British Land called in Arup to redesign the tower after it bought the freehold to the site in April from DB Real Estate for £130m. Gensler had secured planning permission for a scheme on the one-acre site on behalf of DB Real Estate.

British Land is developing the site on a speculative basis.

In a second win in London, Mace Plus, the firm’s major projects contracting subsidiary, has been appointed to a £20m refurbishment of Marks & Spencer’s store at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street.


The £160m Ropemaker Place tower
The £160m Ropemaker Place tower

The office tower has detailed planning consent for a 505,000 ft², 23-storey building


Mace this week was waiting to hear whether it had won the delivery programme role for the London 2012 Olympics, alongside consortium partners Laing O’Rourke, Davis Langdon, and CH2M Hill. It is in competition with three rival consortiums.

In a separate development, Bovis Lend Lease has won a pre-construction role on British Land’s new development, Leadenhall Building at 122 Leadenhall Street in the City of London. Demolition work is due to start in January 2007, once British Land secures vacant possession of the site. The project is expected to be completed by 2010.

Once completed, the building will be 47 storeys and 736 ft high, making it the tallest building in the Square Mile. It will also provide 601,000 ft² of accommodation.

It is yet to be confirmed whether Bovis will be instructed as the main contractor.

Nigel Webb, head of developments at British Land, said: “We are progressing with detailed design. It is our intention to proceed with construction of the new building for completion in 2010.”