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Balfour Beatty and Vinci have outlined separate plans to target large commercial schemes in London.

Neither firm has traditionally been associated with major office projects but both are rapidly establishing a foothold in this area and have enjoyed significant contract wins in recent months.

It emerged last summer that fellow contractor Morgan Sindall is aiming to grow its new London business to have a 拢150m-turnover over the next three to four years to exploit the capital鈥檚 office market, which, although troubled, is still seen as a relatively strong sector.

Commercial office work as a whole soared by 64% in the last three months compared with the same period last year, according to Barbour ABI.

Bob Clark, Balfour Beatty Construction Scottish and Southern managing director, said the firm is planning to focus on commercial schemes in the capital worth above 拢100m.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been successful in the mid-sized projects of 拢20m-拢40m and on projects such as the [Sixty London] scheme in Holborn which is worth 拢60m but our ambition is to work in a larger bracket,鈥� he said.

Clark added that the firm鈥檚 appointment of Vince Lydon from Lend Lease, who will become head of commercial in the next month, was one of a number of new recruits in this area. He said those with knowledge of the capital鈥檚 commercial sector were especially sought after.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing in London is what we鈥檇 hoped to see and we鈥檙e busy bidding for commercial work 鈥� I just hope that it can be sustained,鈥� he said.

Andrew Ridley-Barker, managing director of Vinci Construction UK, confirmed Vinci is 鈥渧ery interested鈥� in this sector.

Earlier this month, it emerged that Vinci had beaten rivals Kier and Skanska for the contract to build an 拢80m office block at the King鈥檚 Cross Central scheme for client BNP Paribas Real Estate.

 鈥淲e have been working with Vinci France because they do a lot of this kind of work in Paris and we鈥檇 like to exploit that expertise here in London,鈥� he said.