Motorists face FCUK at Hammersmith

MOTORISTS could be in for a big FCUK greeting on the A4 route in to London, depending on talks to buy the bulbous brown Ark building near Hammersmith.

Clothing retailer French Connection, which sells under the FCUK and Nicole Farhi designer labels, has been trying to buy the Ark from owner DEKA, a German investment fund.

French Connection would like to pull out of its six London sites, including its Bromley-by-Bow headquarters, Great Portland Street and Mortimer Street sites, and move into one West London bulding.

The nine-storey Ark - empty for more than a year - is ideal for a new French Connection central office and up to three floors of showrooms. The clothing empire is thought to have contemplated sticking up a gigantic banner with the garish FCUK slogan on the Ark glass facade, visible for A4 drivers in both directions.

Talks have stalled over price. DEKA insists the Ark is worth the £60 million at which the property is valued in its books, trade magazine Estates Gazette reports.

Vivendi Universal, the media group, is reportedly paying around £4.5 million a year for a lease on the Ark, with seven years before it can exercise a break clause. It took on the lease when it bought Canadian group Seagram in 2000, but does not need the space as it is cutting back.