London 2012: Shortlist for media centre announced

A London 2012 venue could be turned into a fashion hub, leisure village or an innovation and research centre.

The ideas are part of short-listed plans for the legacy of the Olympic press and broadcast centre.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) is in final negotiations with UK Fashion Hub, Oxylane Group and iCITY.

Long leases are up for grabs for the whole of both buildings which in total cover one million sq ft (90,000 sq m) of commercial space.

The OPLC, which is in charge of securing the economic future of the Games site, said it hoped about half of the 8,000 jobs it wants to be created on the Olympic Park site, to be at the press and broadcast centre.

It hopes to announce the winning bid this summer with a view to making the buildings available for fit out and opening from spring 2013.

OPLC chief executive, Andrew Altman described them as "dynamic bids", adding: "We will now go through their proposals in fine detail to make sure that they can deliver a successful ongoing legacy that will stimulate future commercial interest."

The short-listed bids are:

  • UK Fashion Hub - a dedicated centre for the fashion and textile manufacturing sectors, where the press centre would become a fashion college, a fashion e-tailing centre and a media centre
  • Oxylane Group - a sports orientated mixed-use offer in partnership with Loughborough University. The broadcast centre would offer leisure, events space, research, and retail while the press centre would be used as office space and a technology centre
  • iCITY - the broadcast centre would be used as a computing centre, research labs, post production, graphic designer and digital education while the press centre would become an innovation and research centre with links to higher education to try and showcase British technology