London South Bank University is planning a major redevelopment of its Elephant and Castle campus with a possible GDV of £1.5bn. A contract notice in the OJEU notes the university is seeking a development partner to bring forward the redevelopment of its current Technopark site, that sits in the south of the campus, closest to the tube station. The LSBU states: “This is an exciting opportunity to acquire the long leasehold interest in a significant central London development site”, in its information to prospective bidders.
The current site (credit: Google Street View)
The university will also require any developer to build a minimum of 648 student bedrooms and 150 self-contained studios, as well as a 400-seater lecture theatre and 200 bedrooms for conference delegates. General teaching space and a ground-floor public café will also need to be part of the plans, meaning the site will most definitely house a tall tower.
The university plans to shortlist three development firms for a planned 12-month procurement process and, according to the OJEU notice, after the above uses have been accounted for in the plans, “the remainder of the site could be developed, subject to planning, for a variety of uses only approved by LSBU.”
Elephant and Castle has seen a number of tall tower proposals in recent years and, at just three storeys in height, the Technopark is now ripe for redevelopment. The Elephant and Castle opportunity area has plans for 5,000 new homes, which already seems will be fulfilled with many more already in the pipeline and, as these plans show, more are to come.
Major schemes within the Elephant and Castle opportunity area