Consortium chosen to build Commonwealth village

Glasgow City Council has named its preferred bidder for the construction of the athletes village for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the city.

A partnership know as the City Legacy Consortium looks set to get the go ahead for the development, when the council debates a report on the subject on Friday.

The village will house 6,500 competitors and officials during the games. Afterwards the athletes village will be transformed, and 765 more homes built on the 38.5 hectare Dalmarnock site, resulting in more than 1,400 new homes.

Of these, 300 will be for social rent, and 100 will be for intermediate rent. City Legacy said all the homes will be priced so they are achievable for first-time buyers, will be low rise, and energy efficient. It is also building a 120 bed care home on the site as part of the work.

The consortium is made up of a range of developers, planners, contractors and advisers. It includes CCG, Cruden, Mactaggart & Mickel, W H Malcolm, Davis Langdon LLP, Scottish and Southern Energy, RMJM, WSP Group, Turley Associates, Burness LLP, and JLL.

In a statement the group said: ‘This innovative project will not only showcase the new face of the east end of Glasgow to a world-wide audience during the Commonwealth Games, it will also transform Dalmarnock to become a much sought-after riverside residential area.’

Councillor Steven Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: ‘The fact that the private sector has demonstrated such confidence in this project shows that Glasgow continues to be an attractive place to do business.’

Scottish sports minister Shona Robison described the announcement of the preferred bidder as ‘an important milestone’.

Glasgow City Council is putting forward the site for development, but will enter into a profit sharing arrangement with the developer at the end of the project. Work on the site is due to start next year, and work on the village is due to be competed six months before the start of the games in 2014.

Wales given Games cycling boost

Wales are likely to have Olympic gold medal-winning cyclists Geraint Thomas and Nicole Cooke available to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Next year's Games take place at the same time as the Road Cycling World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.

British Cycling coach Shane Sutton says Thomas should compete in Delhi, while hopes are also high over Cooke.

"I've no doubt Geraint will be on the start line either in the track and the road or just the road," Sutton said.

"Whether he comes back in for the road, I presume so.

"But if Geraint doesn't make the GB team for the World Road Championships, he'll beef up your [Wales] track squad as well as the road race.

"I couldn't say for sure, I'll sit down with the new coaching team we have at British Cycling and we'll make those decisions alongside the athlete.

"Once we get buy-in from Geraint we'll be able to let everybody know what his plan is.

"He's Welsh through and through. He wants to be there.

"The World Road Championships clashes with the [Commonwealth Games] track, which is difficult.

"But I'm very optimistic that Wales will be very strong on the track, they've got a good pool of riders and they'll be strong on the road as well."

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Thomas, 22, is working his may back to full fitness after suffering a broken nose and a fracture of the ischiopubic bone in the groin.

The Beijing Olympics track gold medallist currently rides for Team Barloworld, but is tipped to join the new British-based Team Sky next year.

Cooke, the Olympic road race champion, competes for her own Vision 1 Racing team.

Both Welsh riders will be on home soil this weekend in the GB National Road Race Championships, which take place in Abergavenny in south Wales, where Cooke will be defending her title.

The competition will have a top-class field, with the likes of Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Emma Pooley and Lizzie Armitstead all expected to compete.

RMJM to design athletes village for Glasgow Commonwealth Games (fly-through)

RMJM has won the competition to design the £300 million athletes village for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The practice is working as part of the City Legacy consortium which includes developers and contractors Campbell Construction, W H Malcolm, Cruden, and Mactaggart & Mickel; project manager Davis Langdon; engineer WSP Consulting and planning consultant Turley Associates.

The consortium beat three other shortlisted teams, including one working with Broadway Malyan, and another working with Ian Simpson Architects, Reiach & Hall Architects, Murray Dunlop Architects, Nord Architecture and Elder & Cannon Architects.

The village will accommodate 8,000 athletes and officials during the event. After the games, further housing will be built on the 38.5 ha site, with the athletes' accommodation refurbished to create family housing. In total there will be 1,400 homes on the site and a 120-bed care home for the elderly.

Construction is expected to start in autumn 2010.

A spokesman for the consortium said: "This innovative project will not only showcase the new face of the east end of Glasgow to a worldwide audience during the Commonwealth Games, it will also transform Dalmarnock to become a much sought-after riverside residential area.

"The proposals will act as a catalyst to create an excellent new neighbourhood with well-placed community facilities and attractive open spaces accessible to existing and new residents."

Scottish sports minister Shona Robison said: "The creation of the athletes village will sustain jobs, regenerate the east end of Glasgow and contribute towards Scotland's economic recovery as we build up to the launch of our plans to create a successful legacy from 2014 to benefit the whole of Scotland."

The news comes just a week after the practice was named as planning consultant on the delivery of key venues for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The practice will oversee the delivery of the athletes village, international broadcast centre, main press centre, international airport, uniform and accreditation centre and main logistics centre in India, where construction for the games has been troubled by delays and rising costs.