Covent Garden Market Authority has signed a contract with a St. Modwen and Vinci PLC joint venture for the regeneration of New Covent Garden Market and announced the appointment a new chairman.
Redevelopment of the 57-acre site at Nine Elms will see 550,000 sq ft of modern facilities built to house the 200 businesses that make up the market.
Together, the market with new modern facilities and a more public face, the Garden Heart, and the Vinci St. Modwen (VSM) mixed-use scheme, will form a key part of the regeneration of Nine Elms on the South Bank, creating the potential for a new food quarter.
Baroness Brenda Dean, outgoing CGMA chairman, said: “We are pleased to have signed this development agreement and to confirm VSM as our development partners. Our vision for a modern new market is now significantly closer to being realised and the team at CGMA are looking forward to working with VSM and the tenant community to take the plans forward in what will be a major part of the new Vauxhall Nine Elms development area.”
Tenants’ Association chair Gary Marshall said: “The contracts have been signed so we enter a new era. The CGTA will always remain a positive element in the outcome of this market and we are positive in our approach in discussing its future.
“While I’m still of the opinion our suggestions have been ignored by the CGMA in the past, we now have a new minister, and a new chair from 1 January. We look forward to positively working with everyone.”
The authority also announced that Pam Alexander OBE, has been appointed as its new chair with effect from 1 February 2013. She succeeds Baroness Brenda Dean, who will step down on 31 January after nearly eight years in office. As a statutory body, CGMA’s board is appointed by government, with Baroness Dean appointed as chairman in April 2005.
Alexander has more than 35 years of experience working closely with boards and governments on strategic policy and delivery of housing, regeneration, business support and economic development. She said: “The redevelopment will bring opportunities to the businesses here, to the existing and new communities of Vauxhall and Nine Elms and to the high-quality food, hospitality and tourism offer in London.”
