Lend Lease Named Preferred Developer for London 2012

A consortium led by Lend Lease, the Australian property group, is poised to win more than £5bn ($9.6bn) of development work on the London 2012 Olympic Village and the adjoining Stratford City urban renewal project.

The consortium was named preferred developer of the site by the Olympic Development Authority, ahead of French builder Bouygues, which had teamed up with Barratt Developments, the UK house builder.

Reports suggest that the cost of London's 2012 Olympics has doubled to £5.1 billion, including £3.2 billion for construction of sports venues and £1.9 billion to regenerate the area around the Olympic site, but did not include a contingency for overruns or possible sale taxes.

Lend Lease's spokesman Ron Cutler said the first development phase, costing £2 billion, would provide 4200 dwellings on the 73-hectare site in East London. The dwellings would house around 17,000 athletes expected to attend the 2012 London Olympics.

There would also be commercial and hotel development on the site.Mr Cutler said the planning would be completed by 2008 and construction would begin in the following year, to be finished by 2011 or early 2012.