VIDEO: A vision of the future for Battersea Power Station (From Wandsworth Guardian)

VIDEO: A vision of the future for Battersea Power Station

4:50pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in News By Jamie Henderson

The Malaysian owners of Battersea Power Station have pledged to begin construction work on the 39-acre site before the New Year.

The new consortium, which is comprised of SP Setia, Sime Darby and Employers Provident Fund (EPF), put the finishing touches to the £400m deal yesterday.

This morning a gathering of international and national press were shown a presentation highlighting the scale of the job undertaken by the Malaysians.

Planning consent to build 3,500 homes, 1.7m sq ft of office space, a "high street" of shops, gyms, theatres and a park has been secured.

The consortium has also committed to the construction of the proposed extension to the Northern Line into the Nine Elms area - a move which is seen as key to attracting enough people to live and work in the development.

"Preparartory work" on the £8bn development project will begin in December with the first ground broken in the second half of 2013.

Phase One of the development will start with the construction of residential buildings containing 800 apartments and standing above a commercial podium which will include retail, restaurants, gym, pool, spa, theatre and office studios. Although subsequent phases will contain a small proportion of affordable housing, none of the initial Phase One apartments will be of this type.

A new six-acre, riverside public park with directly links to Battersea Park will form the setting for the new buildings. This phase is designed by prizewinning and influential architects Ian Simpson Architects and de Rijke Marsh Morgan in accordance with the Rafael Vinoly masterplan.

Speaking as he unveiled the latest plans for the derelict site, Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, the president and CEO of S P Setia, said: "Battersea Power Station is a wonderful building and both it, and the centrally located Nine Elms area surrounding it, are in need of regeneration.

"As property developers we are very proud to be part of the team that will bring them back to life and ensure they are preserved for future generations.

"With the sale now complete, we can move forward with our vision to build a vibrant, accessible and functional town centre for the Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea area with the Power Station at its heart, creating up to 26,000 new jobs in the process."

The site was acquired through a company known as Battersea Project Holding Company Ltd (BPHC) in which S P Setia and Sime Darby have a 40 per cent stake each with EPF holding the remaining 20 per cent.

Rob Tincknell, CEO of Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) which will oversee the power station site's progress, confirmed the December start and joked about rumours earlier this year that Chelsea FC might relocate there.

He said: "Before the end of this year you will see cranes and diggers on the site for the first time in 25 years.

"We want to make Phase One an example of what this project can be about.

"The iconic building will once again be providing power but this time it will be green energy.

"It will be the largest carbon-neutral building in Europe and as you can see there will be no football stadium in sight."

The Art Deco power station's famous chimneys are too badly decayed to be saved so will be torn down, rebuilt and replaced by reinforced concrete replicas at a cost of just over £11m.

The rest of the building will also be restored at a cost of £50m, meaning the total renovation cost will pass £60m.

This work is set to begin in September 2013 with each chimney taking nine months to fully restore, a provisional completion date is September 2016.

A property sales launch is expected to start in January with flats going on sale as soon as April - and Mr Tinckless hopes they will be sold by September 2013.