Olympics Hq Stays At Wharf

[richard]

BARCLAYS will become the new engine room for London's Olympic dream, with Lord Sebastian Coe and his team to move from One Canada Square.

The Wharf understands that the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) will move from the 50th floor of the tower into three floors in Barclays' One Churchill Place headquarters.

The shift is expected to happen towards the end of the year or the start of 2006 to coincide with the appointment of LOCOG's CEO, which is anticipated for March.

LOCOG will move into floors owned by Canary Wharf Group (CWG) and will share offices with the Olympic Delivery Authority, which is responsible for the planning and construction of venues.

The committee must move to new premises to accommodate the expected 3,000 staff who will work on the Olympics between now and 2012.

At its inaugural meeting last Monday, October 3, the interim LOCOG board agreed to terms and conditions for the lease of office space on the Wharf.

On the same day, Barclays threw itssupport behind the Olympics by pledging £50million over three years towards LOCOG's operating budget.

The funding will enable the committee to begin planning for key Games programmes, including the Torch Relay.

A LOCOG spokesman would not comment on whether staff will move toBarclays HQ, but added: ``It is no secret that we are looking around for bigger accommodation. The plan is to move to another location later this year or early next year and that location will be on the Wharf. We want to be as close as possible to the Olympic Park.''

Barclays referred The Wharf's inquiries to LOCOG. CWG group gifted the London 2012 bid team the top floor of One Canada Square under an agreement that ended on July 6, 2005, coinciding with London's stunning Olympic victory over Paris.

The latest developments come as the deadline for the £500,000 LOCOG chief executive role looms.

The successful candidate will replace interim CEO Keith Mills, who will become LOCOG's deputy chairman when a new board is appointed in April Applications for the position - described on the London 2012 website as ``a role of great national importance'' - close on Monday, October 10.

Lord Coe and Mr Mills will select the CEO by the end of the year.

They will take up their seven-year role in March and be responsible for a £2bn budget and recruiting key people to the committee.

Source
icthewharf.co.uk

[Fiona]

Olympic organisers choose Canary Wharf as 2012 HQ

The team organising the London Olympic Games in 2012 will be based in the financial hub of Canary Wharf, a couple of kilometres from the Olympic Park, the Games' organising committee said on Monday.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) said it and the Olympic Delivery Authority, responsible for the Games' infrastructure, would move into three floors of the 33-storey One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf.

In the immediate run-up to the Games it is thought around 2,500 employees will be based in the building, which is also home to Barclays.

The move will be a short hop for the successful bid organisers, who orchestrated London's victory from nearby skyscraper One Canada Square.

The 86-acre Canary Wharf site, owned by Songbird Estates, was a thriving docks area until the late 1960s but was converted into a gleaming business district during the 1980s.

Reuters.co.uk