July 05–Fans of Michael Buble, Iron Maiden, and other stars playing at Greenwich’s O2 Arena will soon be able to slip from their seats to bed via a VIP entrance after Balfour Beatty today announced it is building a hotel on the site.
Balfour won a pounds sterling 121 million contract to build an 18-storey hotel, with 452 rooms, plus a leisure and apartment complex in North Greenwich peninsula, next to the O2, for Grove Developments Limited.
The site will include 100 serviced apartments, plus, Balfour added, “hard and soft landscaping works designed to create VIP access to London’s O2 arena”. A spokesman for the builder said stars playing at the arena, which hosts tennis’ ATP world finals this year as well as concerts, would have their own entrance from the hotel to the stadium. Hotel guests will also be able to avoid the normal queues to directly enter the O2.
Balfour said it was building the hotel and apartments’ bathrooms off site to save construction time on site and minimise lorry movements, and putting solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems on the buildings. Chief executive, Andrew McNaughton, said: “We are delighted to see that our customers are eager to embrace sustainable best practice to develop a scheme that will help promote UK trade and investment.”
Work will begin this summer and is due for completion in summer 2015.
