LONDON, Dec 15: Ten bids have been received from would-be tenants wanting to take over the London Olympic press and broadcast centre after next year’s Games, the man in charge of the legacy company said.

“We have received a significant amount of private sector interest in the broadcasting centre,” Andrew Altman, chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, told a parliamentary committee.

“We went out to the market in October and on December 2 we received 10 bids.

“We are now in the process of shortlisting and in January we will be going to our board and making a recommendation to move forward,” he told the Public Accounts Committee.

“We think that those bids have significant potential for anchor tenants for the broadcast and media centre. So we are very encouraged by what we have seen thus far.”

Companies were formally invited to bid in October, with organisers hoping the vast, grey building in the northwest of the Park in Stratford would help provide jobs and regeneration in a deprived part of east London.

Some experts have expressed concern that the million square foot facility, which will be used by more than 20,000 journalists during the Games, may prove too large to be fully utilised once the Olympics are over.—Reuters