Qatari Diar's London Olympics village deal confirmed

A joint venture between UK developer Delancey and the property arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has bought the athlete's village on the Olympic park in east London for 557m pounds ($906m).The deal was confirmed by the Olympic Delivery Authority on Friday. The ODA is responsible for developing the venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Games and their use after the event.The 27-hectare athlete's village deal includes 1,400 homes and six other plots, which Delancey and Qatari Diar will develop as part of a wider urban regeneration scheme in the district when the games finish next year.Delancey and Qatari Diar beat a rival bid from Hutchison Whampoa , which is Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's flagship ports-to-telecommunications conglomerate. They also beat a 1 billion pounds proposal from the Wellcome Trust to take over all the 2.5 sq km Olympic park. On July 28, UK developer Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar said they had won a 300 million pounds deal to redevelop the Shell Centre in London.The companies would each contribute 150 million pounds to develop a 5.25-acre office, residential and retail scheme around a 27-storey tower that contains Royal Dutch Shell's London headquarters and which the oil major will still own. From / Arabian Business News