Available 2014/15. Bids accepted for the freehold, but if you've got some daft plan for a visitor attraction, we might consider working with you. However all the previous flummery about a "Creative Quarter" or new home for QPR was just kite-flying. We need the money; there's no guide price. Some of it will have to be knocked down, and some of it, sadly, is listed. We're hanging on to the Romanian office blocks of White City, and we're trying to work out where to put a new control room.
Please reply to Richard Deverell, nearly-but-not-quite of MediacityUK, Salford Quays or Caroline Thomson, White City.
- Clearly, very few buyers have been beating a path to the BBC's doors since it first announced an intention to get out of Television Centre in 2007 - this despite an ambitious masterplan for the wider area, by Rem Koolhaas. The "Creative Quarter" was 2010's idea - with a conference at White City and speeches from Mark Thompson. In December came a flirtation with the moneybags behind QPR, which always seemed an unlikely marriage to this writer. On price, my wild guess now is that the BBC will be lucky to get over £30m for the 14 acres; the combination of listed bits and lack of air con in most of the site means tricky demolition or major refurbishment to deliver either offices or residential. I think the Evening Standard is way off at £300m; there's currently 13 acres of greenfield near Ickenham Tube station available for £8m (inevitably without planning permission). The benefit to the BBC in getting out is costs avoided in maintenance, repairs and management; the cash will only just cover the building of a new switching and control centre.
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