- LONDON: A joint venture between UK developer Delancey and the property arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has bought the athlete’s village on the Olympic park in east London, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The deal was signed in the last 48 hours, the two sources said. It has been reported that a successful bid for the Olympic Village would have to be at least 500 million pounds ($811 million).
The 27-hectare athlete’s village deal includes 1,400 homes and six other plots, which Delancey and Qatari Diar will develop as part of a wider urban regeneration scheme in the district when the games finish next year.
Delancey and Qatari Diar beat a rival bid from Hutchison Whampoa, which is Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s flagship ports-to-telecommunications conglomerate.
They also beat a 1 billion pounds proposal from the Wellcome Trust to take over all the 2.5-kilometer-square Olympic park.
An official announcement is expected in the next few days.
On July 28, UK developer Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar said they had won a 300 million pounds deal to redevelop the Shell Center in London.
The companies would each contribute 150 million pounds to develop a 5.25-acre office, residential and retail scheme around a 27-story tower that contains Royal Dutch Shell’s London headquarters and which the oil major will still own.