Berkeley Group pays £150m for Murdoch’s Fortress Wapping
THE FORMER headquarters of News International, based in East London, has been snapped up by Berkeley Group.
A source close to the deal told City A.M. that the Wapping site was sold for around £150m.
Fortress Wapping, so called when Rupert Murdoch defeated unions and moved away from Fleet Street, was bought by Murdoch in the mid-1980s for £300,000.
The 15-acre plot was put on sale last September after the closure of The News of the World.
News International had previously been planning to redevelop the site.
The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun have since moved to the adjacent 550,000 square feet site at Thomas More Square, owned by Land Securities.
While Barratt Developments and Cooper Group expressed their interests last year, property tycoon Tony Pidgeley lodged a bid in early April and his company Berkeley has since successfully secured the bid for one of London’s largest property plots on the market.