Balfour Beatty and its partners held a ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of works to regenerate 7.6 acres of the Greenwich Peninsula in London with a prestigious hotel and residential scheme today.

The centerpiece of the development being carried out for Grove Developments Limited will be 'The InterContinental London The O2', a 19-storey, 452-room five-star hotel.

Containing a massive 4,800 sq metres of space for conferences and events as well as Europe's largest pillar-free ballroom, the hotel will also offer leisure facilities including a health spa, several restaurants and a panoramic Sky Bar offering magnificent views of Canary Wharf and the River Thames.

The hotel will be designed to be sustainable to BREEAM 'Excellent' standards and will be built on land reclaimed from previously polluted soil. The hotel will have the latest sustainable features such as 'green' roofs and surrounds which will harvest water to reduce demand on the mains supply.

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Construction will be carried out in just two years, helped by innovative building techniques. For example, the hotel and apartment bathrooms will be constructed off-site as individual modules before being installed on-site and pre-cast piling will save time in construction as well as reducing environmental impacts compared to traditional methods.

The site is ideally located for business guests and tourists visiting the capital and offers excellent transport links being situated 400 metres from North Greenwich tube station or a 15 minute journey to London City Airport, while visitors can also use the conveniently located ferry links or the Emirates Airline cable car to get to central London.

The development will also include The Peninsula Tower, a 23-storey development offering 100 serviced apartments with grand views of the Thames and South London. The project is being funded by the Queensgate Investment Fund.

The scheme is a component of the Greenwich Peninsular redevelopment which is turning the Greenwich Peninsular into a key part of London's commercial landscape, and when complete, will provide 190 acres of new business, leisure and living space including more than 10,000 new homes. The development is expected to employ around 350 people during construction and up to 650 when it is complete. The project will be delivered in summer 2015.

(CD/JP)