Blackfriars office scheme receives permission
A revised proposal for a multi-storey office scheme by Blackfriars Bridge in London has been granted planning permission.
The 20-storey office scheme (pictured), coupled with ground level retail units and a separate residential apartment building was granted planning permission by Southwark’s planning committee this week. The speculative scheme will offer approximately 314,300 sq ft of office floor space with maximum floor plates of about 12,000 sq ft.
The £60m scheme is being developed by Great Portland Estates (GPE) in a 50:50 joint venture, known as Ropemaker Property, with the BP Pension Fund. The site at 240 Blackfriars Road was purchased from GPE for an initial payment of £20.5m. Planning permission was granted after the developers agreed to additional section 106 payments, used to fund local projects and services.
Existing office buildings on the site, amounting 34,300 sq ft were demolished in 2008. These existing offices were purchased in late November 2005, with GPE paying vendors Royal London Asset Management £11m. KPMG were the previous main occupiers, paying an annual rental of £345,000.
The office building will incorporate various energy-saving measures such as a biomass boiler for renewable energy and a ‘chilled ceiling’ cooling system. A BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ is expected.
GPE announced the restart of the mothballed project in November 2010 and have given a target completion date of June 2013. There are no reported pre-let agreements and rental prices are to be confirmed.
Architects for the scheme are Allford Hall Monoghan Morris. Marketing agents are DTZ.
This entry was posted in London and tagged Demolitions, Skyscrapers, Speculative Developments. Bookmark the permalink.