Marconi plans £100m new headquarters

Marconi is set to move its communications and services activities from New Century Park site in Coventry to Ansty in the West Midlands where a new £100m-plus headquarters will be constructed and ready for occupation in 18-30 months.

The electronics giant acquired the Ansty site via a land swap deal which saw development quango Advantage West Midlands take over the 40ha Coventry site. San Francisco architect West Coast of America has been commissioned to undertake design work.

Marconi project director Paul Harris said the project was still in the concept stage. Harris said Marconi would be looking to line up contractors in September or October for the building, which is probably going to be around 110,000m2.

Harris added: "We are considering three options." In option one, Marconi would act as project manager and let the work packages itself. A second option was to award the contact on a turnkey basis using a preconceived design. The third option was to offer a conceptual design to design and build contractors.