Sean Mulryan: green light from mayor and local authority

Developer Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Group has received a boost after mayor of London Boris Johnson and Hackney and Tower Hamlets backed new planning guidelines for its 12-acre Bishopsgate Goods Yard site in London. The new rules will allow high-rise development on part of the site and up to 2,000 residential units may be built there. Ballymore has a 50% stake in the company that owns the site, with British property developer Hammerson holding the remainder.

The goods yard has been dormant for 40 years and the owners have already invested £20m to box in the railway line at the site. A health centre and offices are also planned by the developer for the site as is a high-level public park on a viaduct. Under the plan, about one-third of the site is to be given over to local space.

Both Hackney council and the Greater London Authority have said that the western end of the site is an appropriate location for tall buildings.

Planning permission has already been granted for a 51-storey skyscraper near the site.

However, Ballymore and Hammerson recently told Johnson that the project would be "unviable" if they have to pay towards the cost of the Crossrail public transport project in the form currently proposed.

In the letter, the venture also said "overcoming the constraints posed by the existing public transport infrastructure and integrating the development with the east London line represents a capital cost of £100m. This substantial cost, together with other planning obligations such as affordable housing and the need to provide a public park and a new civic square, means that the viability of the scheme is already unduly comprised."