Here’s what a new City office scheme with five garden roof terraces will look like at 80 Fenchurch Street
Work on a new office tower that will boast the biggest number of roof gardens in the City got underway this week, as developers began knocking down the old site.
Partners Group, a Swiss private equity firm, is developing a 245,000 square feet office tower at 80 Fenchurch Street together with joint venture partner Marick Real Estate after buying the site out of receivership in April for around £55m.
The Foster + Partners-designed scheme originally won consented in 2008 but was revised last year following a review by architects TP Bennett.
The star feature of the 14-storey building will be five landscaped terrace roof gardens, providing panoramic views of the London.
Marick Real Estate director Patrick Going said: ”We are delighted this exciting project is now underway and the initial response to the enhanced scheme from tenants has been highly encouraging.”
The pair are building the scheme speculatively without a tenant lined up but hope to woo companies from the financial, media or legal sectors. They have hired Knight Frank and JLL as leasing agents.
The building will cost around £200m to develop and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.
The building is the latest to be demolished on Fenchurch Street in a building boom that started with the Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group's Walkie Talkie skyscraper, completed last year.
Work got underway earlier this year to turn 120 Fenchurch into new headquarters for fund manager M&G. Meanwhile Aviva Life & Pensions UK plans to knock down Fountain House, a tired sixties block at 130 Fenchurch Street, and build a 17-storey office-led scheme.
Opposite the WalkieTalkie at 40 Leadenhall Street, TH Real Estate is building a £400m office scheme, which has been nicknamed "Gotham City" because the architects Make were inspired by the same US neo-gothic architect that influenced Tim Burton’s Batman movies.