Laing O’Rourke has won a £135m contract to deliver the shell and core for Berkeley Homes’ residential skyscraper next to Canary Wharf in London Docklands.

The scheme will involve the demolition of a 1980s block on the South Quay Plaza site on the Isle of Dogs to build a 68-storey and 36-storey building.

A preconstruction services agreement is due to complete in April 2016 with work officially getting underway in October 2016.

The firm was up against Brookfield Multiplex for the job, which had previously worked for Berkeley Group on its St George tower on London’s south bank.

The job confirms Laing O’Rourke’s place in the London high-rise sector after building the Cheesegrater building and its Expanded arm’s  £40m concrete package with Berkeley Group on the 250 City Road tower, where the house builder is also main contractor.

The slender main tower at South Quay Plaza will rise to 220m with a floor plate of two intersected squares, to maximise views across London for each of the luxury flats.

This will be built in phase one with the smaller twin building pushed into a second construction phase.

In total, 888 homes are planned in all, including 188 affordable properties.

The shell and core works will complete by July 2020 with the building handed over to residents in four phases during 2020/2021.

Work on phase two will start in April 2018.

In total, the buildings will require around 65,000 cu m of concrete and 60,000 sq m of cladding.

The structural and M&E engineer on the job is WSP.

Developer Lulu Group International has bought 1- 5 Great Scotland Yard from Galliard Homes for £110m.

The Abu Dhabi based firm is led by Yusuffali Kader who is one of India’s richest men, with a personal worth of ￡1.8bn.

Lulu Group will now oversee the completion of plans to spend £50m turning the original Scotland Yard Police Station into a 92,000 sq ft 5-star hotel within the refurbished Edwardian building.

Steigenberger Hotel Group has been selected as the hotel operating company to create The Great Scotland Yard hotel.

An adjoining Grade 2 Listed Victorian townhouse will be incorporated into the hotel and used to create an entertaining suite.

The completed hotel will be seven storeys high with two basement levels and will retain the grand Edwardian Imperial red brick and stone facade.

The hotel is scheduled to open in Q1 2017 and will provide employment for up to 250 full time staff.

Construction on site by McAleer & Rushe is now 30% complete with the interior fit out scheduled to start in March 2016.

Puneet Chhatwal, Chief Executive Officer of the Steigenberger Hotel Group said: “This iconic 5-star hotel will mark the entry of the Steigenberger brand into the vibrant and world-renowned London hotel market.

“Our vision is to create an outstanding 5-star hotel drawing on our reputation for quality and service combined with the outstanding central location, grand architecture and fascinating history of Great Scotland Yard.”

Don O’Sullivan, Managing Director of Galliard Homes said: “Galliard Homes is delighted to have reached an agreement with Lulu Group International to create a bespoke 5-star hotel in the heart of London’s Whitehall.

“Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts were chosen as the operator because of their reputation for perfect hospitality, quality and outstanding customer service.  The Great Scotland Yard Hotel will be a brand synonymous with exceptional service and refined luxury and quality.”

Between 1829 and 1890 Nr1 Great Scotland Yard formed part of the headquarters of the newly founded Metropolitan Police force.

It was here that the famous Plaistow Marshes (1864) and Jack the Ripper (1888) crimes were investigated and Scotland Yard was made famous by novelists including Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

McLaren Construction has walked away from a £130m mixed-use scheme near Finsbury Park station in North London.

Demolition work started in March after McLaren was named as preferred bidder on the City North job by joint venture clients United House and landowners the Business Design Centre.

The clients have now gone back out to the market to re-tender the scheme after detailed contractual discussions broke down with McLaren.

Robert Jenkins, Project Director for City North said: “Following discussions between the developers, City North Finsbury Park Ltd and preferred bidder, McLaren Construction; the two parties have been unable to agree all contract matters and have mutually agreed to part on the project.

“We are absolutely committed to the delivery of a development of the highest quality that will transform Finsbury Park and bring new focus and energy to the area, and hope to make an announcement in the near future about the delivery and completion of the scheme.”

The City North scheme will see construction of of 308 one – four bedroom private apartments in two 21 storey buildings.

Works will also include 47 affordable homes and 10,776 sqm of retail, office, restaurant and leisure space.

One rival contractor said: “No-one is really sure what happened here.

“McLaren were all sorted then things seemed to have fallen apart and the job is back on the market again.”

McLaren declined to comment

Singaporean property developer Oxley Holdings has acquired a 20% stake in Galliard Homes for £50m.

Oxley operates in Singapore, across South East Asia, the UK and Ireland.

Its current portfolio of developments includes Royal Wharf in East London.

Oxley is keen to strengthen its presence in the booming London property market

It said: “The partnership with Galliard Group will see Oxley capitalizing and leveraging on Galliard Group’s construction and property development expertise and operating network and contacts in the UK.”

Galliard Homes presently has over £1.6bn worth of forward sales, with nearly 6,000 residential units under construction. The group has sites in planning with a completed value of £2bn.

Mr Ching Chiat Kwong, Chairman & CEO of Oxley said: “This investment marks our strategic alliance in London with a leading well-established and reputable property developer – Galliard Group.

“Galliard has a well proven track record and this acquisition signals our confidence in the UK property market and London in particular.

“We look forward to leveraging this partnership in a variety of ways and hopefully complement our future developments in London.”

Stephen Conway, Chief Executive of Galliard Homes said: “We believe this milestone transaction by Oxley will create business opportunities for both Galliard and Oxley. The synergies are obvious.

“Galliard is a London-centric developer that has a strong selling profile in Singapore.

“Oxley is a dynamic Singapore-based property developer with a rapidly growing London presence.”

Galliford Try has signed a development agreement with the Greater London Authority to secure planning and construct the £380m Silvertown Way development in Canning Town, East London.

The development ranks as the largest standalone housing scheme that Galliford Try has undertaken.

It will see the firm deliver 1,100 mixed tenure homes across 11 individual blocks at the site to the south of the Royal Docks.

The 5.9 acres hectares development site is bounded by Silvertown Way to the east and the railway line to the west with the northern boundary connecting to the A13 and Canning Town underground station.

Galliford Try will deliver the scheme through an existing joint venture vehicle with Thames Valley Housing Association, with a third of the homes for private rent through the housing association’s subsidiary Fizzy Living.

It house building businesses, Linden Homes and Galliford Try Partnerships will be responsible for undertaking the development, which is proposed to include a hotel, restaurant, employment and commercial space alongside the new homes.

Greg Fitzgerald, Galliford Try’s Executive Chairman, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to work with all the stakeholders involved in this project to reach an agreement, and deliver much-needed new homes for London.

“As well as being a hugely significant project for our company, Silvertown Way will be a flagship regeneration project for East London, and we are committed to providing high-quality housing of all tenures for the local community.”

Joint developers Galliard Homes, Frogmore and Cain Hoy have unveiled plans for a £550m high-rise housing scheme on the Isle of Dogs in London.

The 900-home Harbour Central scheme at 2 Millharbour Dock Basin is being billed as a Manhattan-style “vertical village” for Canary Wharf.

It will also feature retail, commercial, leisure and parking facilities in five mixed-use towers, up to 41 storeys high, designed around two new London green squares.

Designed by architect Rolfe Judd the centrepiece will be two iconic high rise residential towers, 41 and 35 storeys high.

The tallest, known as Maine Tower, will be the first part of the project launched for sale.

Stephen Conway, Chairman & Chief Executive of Galliard Homes said: “Harbour Central is a flagship development and the first major Canary Wharf project that we are undertaking in association with Cain Hoy.

“Millharbour is the best residential address in London Docklands and through working with Argent Design we have designed a scheme that offers buyers both a lifestyle offering and a superb investment.”

Joint venture developers Weston Homes and Cathedral Group are preparing to start work transforming the historic 1.2 acre Telegraph Works site at Greenwich in London. 

Currently demolition works of the old cable sheds and warehouses is being undertaken on the site by the ex-owners – Alcatel-Lucent.

Weston Homes will get vacant possession of the cleared Telegraph Works site at the beginning of October when it plans to start project construction immediately on site to create a new £120m residential address.

It will use an in-house team with several subcontractors, still to be appointed, to help deliver the 272-home scheme at the historic site.

The site became known as the Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company Works  in 1857 when the submarine cable manufacturer took over the old rope making factory.

This factory built the first transatlantic telegraph cable, made from seven copper wires, which when laid under the Atlantic Ocean enabled Queen Victoria to communicate with US President James Buchanan on the 16^th August 1858.  This first formal message took 17 hours to transmit.

The 18-storey residential tower will have floor to ceiling windows and recessed balconies. The architecture features a striking brise soleil made from coloured and rendered panels, giving the facade a mosaic-style theme. The other apartment buildings have similar mosaic-style facades and floor to ceiling windows opening onto outside balconies.

Derwent London has scooped planning permission for a new 15-storey hotel close to Blackfriars Bridge in south London.

The 192-room hotel, which will be operated by The Hoxton, is the focal point of 110,000 sq ft mixed-use development of Wedge House at 40 Blackfriars Road, London SE1.

Designed by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands the scheme also included 42,000 sq ft of office and is due to complete in 2018.

Nigel George, Director of Derwent London, said: “We are delighted that Southwark Council has approved this exciting new mixed-use development.”

Sharan Pasricha, Founder and CEO of Ennismore/The Hoxton said: “Southwark is an incredibly exciting part of London. South of the river is where we chose as home for our third London property because we’re big fans of the neighbourhood, especially the theatre and food scene and we’re looking forward to growing up alongside it. We chose to work with Derwent London as they have re-imagined some amazing buildings in London and we’re continually impressed by their work.”

The project is one of several high-rise schemes in planning or under construction between Blackfriars Bridge and St George’s Circus.

The area has been designated as an area for tall buildings in Southwark Council’s SPD for the locality.

London’s Wandsworth Council has approved plans to build 839 homes, a nursery, shops and public square on the former Battersea gasholder site in Nine Elms.

The proposal, a joint venture between Berkeley Group’s developer St William and National Grid, would include 201 affordable homes for local residents to buy or rent at a reduced price.

The four gasholders, which neighbour the world famous Battersea Power Station, were decommissioned in 2013 and demolition is already well underway.

Alison Dowsett, Managing Director of St William, said: “This will open a former industrial site up for the first time in over 150 years and create a fantastic new place for the borough.”

Designed by Squire and Partners, the master plan consists of 12 buildings ranging from seven to 26 storeys in height and a new public square.

The mixed-use scheme would provide just over 50,000 sq ft of new education or office floorspace.

Vacant possession is due in spring 2016 with construction scheduled to start on site soon after. First occupations are scheduled for 2019.

The disused gasworks occupies a key position between Battersea Park and the new town centre now being built at Battersea Power Station.

The developer is set to make a £30m contribution to the cost of extending the Northern Line to this part of Battersea as well as a range of improvements to local community services.

A further £4m is being provided for improvements to neighbouring Battersea Park Station, including a second entrance and new lifts.

Swiss-based Partners Group is joining forces with Marick Real Estate to develop a 245,000 sq ft office building at 80 Fenchurch Street in the City of London.

Demolition of a vacant building on the site in the heart of the City insurance district will start by the end of June.

Construction of the stepped block rising to 14 storeys will start in early 2016, with completion expected by the first quarter of 2018.

The joint developers said the scheme, which has planning, will involved a total investment of £200m.

Designed by architects TP Bennett, the office block will boast a series of tiered roof gardens over nine individual building elements making up the stepped block.

Stuart Keith, Vice President, Private Real Estate, Partners Group, said: “The recent rebound in the UK economy has created a significant supply-demand imbalance in the City of London in terms of Grade A office space, with vacancy levels close to historic lows and rents steadily climbing.

“80 Fenchurch will be perfectly placed in terms of location, timing and quality of build to capitalise on this attractive market opportunity.”