好色先生TV

The race to win the first phase of a huge 拢1bn scheme in Blackfriars has narrowed to two firms.

Multiplex and Balfour Beatty will now square off against each other for the Western Yards scheme which is being developed by Native Land. A pitch from Mace has been dropped.

A winner is due to be named before Christmas.

The work will include an 18-storey office block, called Arbor, as well as two residential buildings comprising 257 homes 鈥� a 49-storey tower and a smaller 13-storey block.

The two tallest towers have been designed by PLP with Arbor due to complete in September 2021 while the 49-storey tower will be finished at the end of the following year. The 13-storey block has also been designed by PLP.

Western Yards is being built on the site of Ludgate House, which was opened by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1989 and was the previous home of the Daily Express and 好色先生TV. Balfour Beatty also had offices there.

The scheme, which is being funded by a mixture of Malaysian and Singaporean investors, will also include revamping 14 railway arches in the area to make way for 50,000 sq ft of retail, leisure and cultural space.

Western Yards is part of the wider development called Bankside Yards which also includes Sampson House on the other side of the railway line that runs into and out of the nearby Blackfriars station.

McGee, which knocked down Ludgate House, has also been demolishing this building, completed in the 1970s by Fitzroy Robinson, after tenant IBM moved out last autumn.

The Sampson House part of the scheme is known as Eastern Yards and will eventually have five buildings of mixed-use including just under 350 homes, as well as a hotel and office space.