The Agreement for Lease and Development Management Agreement were signed by the Council and King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership (KCCLP), the developers of the building, earlier this month. KCCLP have now submitted a reserved matters planning application, for consideration by the Council's Development Control committee.
The new building, to be located in the new Pancras Square between St. Pancras and Kings Cross stations, will re-house many council services currently spread across the borough in old, expensive and inefficient offices to one cheaper, more sustainable building to manage.
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The plans will significantly reduce the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on repair and maintenance bills for council offices and ensure that much-needed funds will not be taken away from front-line services.
For example, in the 2009/10 financial year over £340,000 was spent on repair work to the town hall extension building alone.
The sale or termination of leases at seven existing buildings will pay for the new building and means the Council can create new facilities for the community at no additional cost to taxpayers.
The plans will enable the Council to create a more modern facility for St Pancras Library, a customer contact centre to make it easier for residents to do all their business with the Council under one roof, and open a new community sports centre two years ahead of schedule.
Kings Cross is one of the largest developments of its kind in Europe, and is delivering up to 2,000 new homes, 3.4m sq ft net of office space and 500,000sq ft of retail space. There will be 20 new streets, 10 major public spaces and 20 historic buildings and structures are being restored and refurbished across the 67 acre site.
Together, Camden Council and KCCLP are aiming to make the Council's new building one of the first inner-city buildings in the UK to achieve a BREEAM 'Outstanding' sustainability rating.
The estimated completion date and move to the new building is 2014 subject to securing planning permission. In order to minimise costs and disruption, the sale of buildings such as the town hall extension won’t happen until services have moved into the new building.
(CD/BMcC)
