Battle royale over £450m War Office building plan

The billionaire hinduja brothers already own one of the most stupendous buildings in London — a 25bedroom mansion just 400 yards from Buckingham Palace.

But I can disclose their plans to develop another of the capital’s landmarks — the immense edwardian home of the old War Office — are now at the centre of a bizarre multi-million-pound court case.

It has been brought by London lawyer Vijay Goel, whose past roles included advising former Deputy PM Nick Clegg about emerging markets.

The hindujas and their Spanish business partners paid the Ministry of Defence £350 million for the old War Office back in 2013, intending to convert its two miles of corridors and 1,100 rooms into a 125-bedroom Raffles hotel.

Goel, 45, aware that a top-notch developer would be needed for such a project, alleges that he introduced the hindujas to construction firm Ardmore. he did so, he states in his high Court claim, after reaching an oral agreement with Cormac Byrne, Ardmore’s managing director, that he would receive payment worth 1 per cent of any contract which Ardmore made with the hinduja Group — if Ardmore secured the deal to convert the old War Office.

By October last year, claims Goel, Ardmore had indeed secured the contract — worth, he believes, £450million. But by then, according to his high

Court claim, Ardmore had sent him what it allegedly described as a ‘final’ version of its agreement with him.

This cut his fee from 1 per cent to half a per cent — meaning that he would receive around £2.25 million instead of £4.5 million.

Goel says he expressed ‘vehement disagreement’ with this, and is now seeking ‘approximately £4.5million’. Ardmore are unmoved. ‘We are very disappointed to receive a claim from Mr. Goel, but it will be robustly defended,’ a spokesman tells me.

The hindujas are not involved in the dispute between the builders and the alleged fixer.

Goel’s high Court documents describe him as a ‘former chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce’. Not so, says a spokesman for the organisation.

‘Vijay hasn’t been chairman of London Chamber of Commerce,’ he tells me, adding that Goel has, instead, been chairman of the Asian Business Association — one of the London Chamber of Commerce’s sub-groups.