Olympic media centres go out to tender

Olympic legacy chiefs have gone to market with the tender for the two London 2012 media centres, sites which are badly served by public transport and which they admit will be the most difficult part of the Olympic Park to sell to business.

Companies have been given nine weeks to submit proposals to the Olympic Park Legacy Company to become part of “a vibrant new commercial district” in the north-west corner of the park in Hackney.

The press and broadcast centres, built to house 8,000 journalists during the Games, are two monolithic structures which together make up 1m sq ft over five floors.

But in legacy terms, they represent the OPLC’s stiffest challenge because the nearest form of public transport is an 8-minute walk to Hackney Wick station, which is on the North London overground line.

The BBC last month withdrew from talks to take up studio space, to the fury of London mayor Boris Johnson.

A proposal from the Wellcome Trust to take over the whole of the media centre as part of its £1bn bid for the whole of the Olympic Park was rejected by the government in July.

Baroness Ford, OPLC chairman, said in a FT interview in July: “It’s a difficult site in terms of connectivity in the park and it’s difficult because it’s an untried location commercially.

“It’s a beautiful site; a campussy site, but this is quite a big building. It’s a million square feet of commercial space, so we’ve always felt this was quite a challenge, to be honest. I’ve always said I’ve thought this was probably the most tricky venue in the park, and to find a sustainable use for.”

Transportation to and from the media centre during the Games involves a coach drop-off space and car parking for 1200 vehicles.

The OPLC envisages turning the space into a hub for creative and digital industries, building on the government’s vision of “east London Tech City”, a belt of industries stretching from Old Street to the Olympic Park.

Baroness Ford said in the summer the strategy was to find an anchor tenant in the broadcast centre, and complementary uses in the press centre.

Hugh Robertson, sports minister, said: “The unrivalled location combines the innovative and creative energy for which east London is already famous …”

The OPLC intends to shortlist potential tenants in February.

Meanwhile, ministers on Monday sought to end doubts about the legacy of the Olympic stadium by providing a legal assurance that the stadium’s running track would be retained after the Games.

The government’s decision to award the anchor tenancy of the stadium to West Ham United, which wants to keep the running track, is the subject of a judicial review in a fortnight’s time mounted by rival bidder Tottenham Hotspur, which envisaged demolishing the track.

If the court finds in Spurs’ favour, the government would be forced to retender the stadium tenancy. Mr Robertson said there were various options open to the government if it lost the review, including keeping the stadium in public hands. But the inclusion of the running track in the stadium’s legacy plans was “non-negotiable”, he said.

The government has sought to bolster London’s bid against Doha to to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships in the stadium by providing international athletics chiefs with a letter from the Treasury Solicitor underpinning ministers’ assurances that the running track would stay after the Games.

The International Amateur Athletics Federation visited the Olympic stadium on Monday as the running track was unveiled to the media for the first time.