Ballymore lodges plans for mixed use in London

Ballymore, the property firm controlled by developer Seán Mulryan, has lodged outline plans with two London councils to build nearly 1,500 homes, offices and shops on lands left derelict since the 1960s.

The preliminary plans for the project, to be built between 2015 and 2027 in co-operation with another property firm, Hammersons, relate to the Bishopsgate Goods Yard in east London and have been submitted to Tower Hamlets and Hackneycouncils.

The majority of the buildings on the 11.5 acre site were demolished a decade ago. The developers want to divide the site into 12 lots delivered in four phases between 2015 and 2027, the property newsletter CoStar News reported yesterday.

Ballymore and Hammersons spent a year negotiating details with Network Rail before they got an agreement that allows the phased development of the site without impacting on rail lines that run through the site.

One element of the plan would see the construction of a 13-storey office building, including shops, on the two lower floors that would span the east London line, including Shoreditch’s overground station. There are six towers, varying in size from 30-storeys to 46-storeys in height, in the plan, most of which will be given over to apartments, according to the documents seen by CoStar News.

In 2009, the two councils agreed a development that spoke of building 2,000 homes, rather than the lower number now being proposed by Ballymore and Hammersons, along with keeping a number of historic structures, including a viaduct.

The lands, which straddle the border between Hackney and Tower Hamlets, were once the site of a gateway into medieval London. Source: The Irish Times.