Qatari investment fund to buy US Embassy in London

London: The US government said Tuesday it has agreed to sell its vast London Embassy building to a Qatari government-owned company.

The embassy said the State Department had signed a deal to sell the 600-room Chancery building to the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co., the Gulf state's property investment fund.

The embassy announced plans last year to move from central London's Mayfair district to a new high-security building south of the River Thames.

The winner of a design competition is due to be announced next year, and officials hope the building will be completed by 2017.
embassy, a concrete-and-glass building by modernist architect Eero Saarinen, has been given protected status at the request of architectural guardian English Heritage, meaning its facade cannot be altered.

That restriction on redevelopment is likely to have reduced the sale price. The embassy did not disclose terms of the deal, but said it expects the sale of the Chancery and its other Mayfair buildings to pay for construction of the new embassy.

The move will end a US presence on London's Grosvenor Square that goes back to the late 18th century, when future president John Adams was the first US envoy to England.