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Cost of Olympics media centre has tripled to £400m
Matthew Beard, Evening Standard26.02.08
The cost of the media centre for the London Olympics could rise to £ 400million - almost three times the original estimate - the Standard has learned.
Surveyors' estimates for the International Media and Broadcast Centre have emerged as Olympics chiefs prepare to select their "preferred bidder" for the key project later this week.
Sources say the venue in the Olympic Park - originally budgeted at £ 134million - is now being costed at between £300million and £400million.
The Olympic Delivery Authority wants construction firms to contribute up to half of the building costs. The successful bidder for the centre would, in return for its joint investment, share any rental income from the venue after the Games with the landowner, the London Development Agency.
On Thursday, the ODA board will decide which of the two remaining bids - from French firm Bouygues and English rivals Carillion - would best deliver an affordable facility for the Olympic fortnight.
The media centre within the Olympic Park in Hackney Wick will serve 20,000 broadcasters, print journalists and photographers - the world's largest media contingent for a single event. Work is due to begin on the site early next year.
After the Games the 1.3million square metre facility - the same floorspace as Canary Wharf's Canada Tower - will be converted into a "creative industries" hub.
Olympics chiefs hope the venue's hitech media facilities can be adapted so it becomes home to television, film and new media companies, creating up to 13,000 jobs. On a recent trip to India, Ken Livingstone encouraged Bollywood companies to consider making it their London address.
Already the LDA has rejected proposals for a supermarket distribution centre, insisting it creates too few jobs. Detailed plans remain under wraps, although it is thought Bouygues has proposed "Pinewood Mark II" by borrowing the model of the Buckinghamshire film studios. But budget will have to be considered.
Shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said: "The ODA need to come forward with an explanation of where the compensatory savings are to be made if we are to avoid a massive budget overrun."
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