Urban Splash and Berkeley among developer teams for first post-games neighbourhood

Six development teams have been shortlisted to win the bid to build the 900-home first phase of homes on the Olympic site after the games.

The consortiums bidding to develop the neighbourhood, branded Chobham Manor, include a team comprising Urban Splash, contractor Mace and high profile interior design group, Yoo, led by designers Philippe Starck and Jade Jagger.

Also on the list are teams including Berkeley Group, Countryside Properties, Taylor Wimpey, United Housing and Barratt.

The competition is being run by the Olympic Park Legacy Company, which has called for a “return to London’s traditional family neighbourhoods of terraced and mews houses” for the neighbourhood, which is situated between the Athletes’ Village and the VeloPark, north of the Athletes’ Village.

At least 70% of the homes will have to be family housing, and the OPLC says 40% will include gardens.

The full shortlist is:

  • East Thames and Countryside Properties
  • Barratt Homes and Le Frak Organisation
  • St James Group (Berkeley)
  • Swan Housing Association, Urban Splash, Yoo & Mace
  • Notting Hill Housing, United Housing and HTA
  • Taylor Wimpey and London & Quadrant

The shortlisted bidders will be asked to submit outline proposals by the end of February. The OPLC will then begin a competitive dialogue process with three of them with the aim of appointing a development partner by summer 2012. The first homes are to be completed by 2014.

Andrew Altman, chief executive of the OPLC, said: “We have received an extremely strong response from developers interested in building Chobham Manor. This reflects the strong market appetite to develop family housing in the first neighbourhood to be created in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

“Plans for the Olympic Park after the Games are already more advanced than any other Olympic host city and we aim to continue this by appointing a preferred bidder before the 2012 Games.”

The development is the first of five post-games development packages to come forward, with the aim of building 8,000 homes in total. An outline planning application for 6,800 homes across the park was submitted in October last year by the OPLC, and is due to be decided before the Games.

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