Land Securities, Kingspark and BAA Lynton are in the running to secure a 13.4ha (33 acre) site next to Stockley Park for redevelopment as leisure, offices or storage facilities.
The developers form part of three consortia ministers have shortlisted for a £15m government record storage PFI project.
A string of public bodies currently use the depot, but are looking for premises that are more efficient. This is likely to be a new building of between 7,430 sq m – 9,290 sq m (80,000 sq ft – 100,000 sq ft) capable of accommodating five or six levels of racking.
The new storage facility can be on or off-site, but according Knight Frank’s Alex Dawson, who is advising lead department MOD, it needs to be close enough for the existing staff to continue to work for the service. “It also needs to be close to central London. A lot of police and crime records are kept there. If the Home Secretary or the magistrates courts request them they have to be delivered within 12 hours.”
He adds: “Whether the preferred bidder opts for on-site or off-site facility it will release a large valuable site for redevelopment.”
Knight Frank is currently agreeing a planning brief with Hillingdon council, which is keen to see the site redeveloped.
Dawson said: “They would not object to offices, but the car parking ratios would be low because of new guidance and the council does not want to see any more traffic generated on the M4. So we could be looking at off-peak leisure or off-peak storage.”
The shortlisted consortia are:
- BAA Lynton, Babcock & Brown and Hayes Record Management
- Kingspark and TNT
- Land Securities, Pell Frischmann and Recall.
EGi News 04/08/99
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