The €12 billion ($13.5 billion) CGI property fund is to take a 50% stake in White City in a deal that values the site alone at £203 million ($320 million). Chelsfield will project manage the million-sf development while retaining a 50% stake as a long-term investment. Completion is scheduled for the first half of 2007.

And as the first piling rigs start on site, seven years after infrastructure works began, the project has received a second boost with news that Marks & Spencer has finally agreed to take a 152,000-sf anchor store over three floors in the northeastern corner of the development. M&S had originally been lined up as anchor tenant, but subsequently went cold on the idea when it was forced to cut its expansion plans in the late 1990s. The deal will be seen as confirmation that M&S is now back on the acquisitions trail.

Chelsfield chairman Elliot Bernerd says discussions were under way with other anchors. "Our expectation is that terms will be agreed with a second retailer within the next four to six weeks," he says.