Demolition of Olympia Central has started, reports Laing O'Rourke.
Work is starting on a total of seven new buildings, including the citizenM and Hyatt Regency hotels, and the 4,400 capacity live music venue run by AEG Presents. Construction be completed in 2024.
Olympia Central Hall is demolished with structures of Olympia National and Olympia Grand, both Grade II listed, are being incorporated into the site’s overall redevelopment and will continue to host events while works are taking place.
The £600m works will be delivered by Laing O’Rourke following its successful completion of a year’s worth of enabling works on the site.
The developers are expecting a total of 80,000m³ of bulk excavation at the site. Due to the size of the site and the number of buildings included in the works, a total of 13 tower cranes and 10 hoists will be uttilized. The 75-metre tower crane currently installed to construct the Olympia West Hall is the biggest on a non-infrastructure project in the UK.
Lloyd Lee, Managing Partner at YOO Capital, commented: “This is an important and historic moment in the redevelopment of Olympia. Olympia Central first opened in 1930 and now we bid farewell as we usher in an exciting new era for the site and London as a whole. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, works are well on schedule. In fact, from a construction perspective, we have been really fortunate and have taken maximum advantage of the exhibition areas being vacant so everyone on site has been able to spread out and maintain social distancing.”
Gavin Neilan, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of DFI, added: “Our investment into this project was predicated on our conviction that, while Olympia is a hugely important and iconic venue which has a rich and successful 130 year history, it still has tremendous untapped potential.
“Commencing construction today marks a significant step in realising our vision to truly unlock that potential by creating a vibrant new cultural, leisure and business hub for London, where visitors and office workers can enjoy a diverse spectrum of exceptional experiences and companies can showcase their products. The number of exciting and high profile occupiers already signed up and the addition today of Trafalgar as the theatre operator, provide a clear demonstration that our vision to make Olympia’s next 130 years even more successful than its first, is shared.”