BBC to sell Television Centre for around £200 million
Published Jul 16 2012, 12:11 BST | By Mayer Nissim
© Rex Features
The corporation will sell the building to property developers Stanhope Plc for a sum in the region of £200 million, the BBC confirmed in a statement.
"Contracts were exchanged on Saturday 14 July 2012. Full details of the sale will be available on completion," it said.
"The BBC put Television Centre on sale in June 2011 and has operated on the site since 1960."
Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman expressed his opposition to the sale early this year.
The BBC had first announced plans to sell the 14-acre Television Centre freehold site in 2007 and appointed commercial property consultants Lambert Smith Hampton in November 2010.
A key objective of the sale was stated as the maximisation of the value of the site to the corporation and the licence payer.
Other factors taken into account were the possibilities for preserving the key listed elements of the building while redeveloping the site as a visitor destination and business hub.
Stanhope is currently working on 17 projects with partners including BSkyB and the Crown Estate.
It has ten million square feet either under construction or in its pipeline, including 3,700 residential units.
Perhaps they could use some of the money from the sale to create a sports channel instead of messing up the regular program schedules and put Eastenders back to Sunday afternoon ... ?
July 16th 2012 at 10:26pm(+1 like)
Not a fan of Eastenders particularly, but a free BBC Sports channel would certainly solve a lot of scheduling problems.
July 17th 2012 at 7:52am
The BBC is facing big financial issues and Sports broadcast rights are very expensive.
The BBC has given-up on sport (although I doubt it would officially state it) A BBC sports channel is a very optimistic hope.
July 17th 2012 at 10:02am
Not quite the £300 million originally expected. No explanation why?
July 16th 2012 at 9:23pm
I would guess that as its listed (protected from being demolished) its value is less than the BBC hoped.
July 17th 2012 at 3:28am
The fact that there is quite a lot of asbestos left might also have made a difference
July 17th 2012 at 10:25am
Demolish it and dig up the dogs grave yard the Blue Peter garden and dump it.
It will make nice site for some penthouses atop a new building.Lets get the stamp duty paid this time not some shady double dealing from back street estate agents for foreign buyers.
July 16th 2012 at 6:23pm
OK, Travelodge or Premier Inn?
July 16th 2012 at 5:50pm
Sad to see this go. Also sad to see people not understand what the BBC does for them and the people around them (because your not on an island alone! Tho some of you should be, LOL)
July 16th 2012 at 5:50pm