A £700M redevelopment of the famous Olympia exhibition centre in West London has been recommended for approval by planning officers at Hammersmith & Fulham council.

Yoo Capital and Deutsche Finance bought the centre for £296M in 2017, and last year submitted plans to transform Olympia from an exhibition-focused venue to a mixed-use scheme comprising 600K SF of office space, 70K SF of coworking space, a hotel, a cinema, restaurants, 73K SF of performing arts and theatre space and two and a half acres of public realm.

The exhibition halls, first built in 1886, will also be refurbished. The scheme is designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC.

The redevelopment means that in one fell swoop Olympia will become one of the largest office schemes in West London, with more office space than the Shard.

Yoo Capital Managing Partner Lloyd Lee explained the ethos behind the redevelopment at Bisnow London’s Building for the Future event in October.

“You cannot have a building that just has one purpose,” he said. “Land in and around cities like London is scarce, and there isn’t enough of it to service both the residents and the people who want to visit the city. So the idea that you build a piece of real estate that is only used from 9 until 5 just doesn’t work anymore. So you are seeing office buildings with hotels and restaurants above them, and it is exciting because it means that buildings are getting used all the time.”

Olympia will host Bisnow London’s inaugural Global Placemaking event on 1 March.