Deals, deals, deals
Land Securities has announced the start of work on its site at 123 Victoria Street in London SW1 after planning consent was granted last week by Westminster City Council. The 227,000 sq ft office and retail building from the 1970s will be completely refurbished at a development cost of about £150m, the group says, with work including the replacement of all the glazing in the building and a new roof. The original award-winning architecture will be allowed to “come back to life”, Land Securities says, while everything inside the building will be stripped out and reconfigured.
Land Securities has had long-term plans for the Victoria area of London, where it completed its mixed-use development Cardinal Place in 2005. It also has the Buckingham Gate and Wellington House schemes under way in the area and says its projects have attracted new companies and retailers. Robert Noel, managing director of the group’s London portfolio, said: “We are using the once in a lifetime opportunity that government downsizing gives us to completely rejuvenate Victoria for residents, businesses and visitors.”
Property Week reports that Sanguine Hospitality has announced plans to spend £30m on turning the Birmingham landmark Cumberland House building on Broad Street into a 285-bed hotel. The new Hampton by Hilton hotel is due to open in 2012 following a comprehensive refurbishment for the building.
The Times reports today that the resolution committee for Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, which has been working out a way of “safeguarding the value of the bank’s assets”, yesterday agreed with Aviva Investors and Exemplar Properties to redevelop a £750m plot in the West End, which used to be the site for Middlesex Hospital. The plans for the three-acre site include two office buildings, residential units, retail units, a medical centre and a school. The project in Fitzrovia, north of Oxford Street, will cost about £200m in total, the paper says. The site’s original plans were dropped in the wake of the credit crisis. The bank’s resolution committee took control of the site in 2008 and has been advised by CB Richard Ellis on the best way to utilise the asset. “In a clear sign of the sea change in Central London’s development market after a successful planning consent, the consortium plans speculatively to start construction immediately and complete by late 2014,” the paper notes.
Meanwhile the central core of the Shard was yesterday completed, becoming Britain’s tallest building. The development is due for full completion in 2012 when it will be the tallest building in Europe, at 1,016 feet. And the developers of the new office block being constructed for UBS at Broadgate in the City yesterday released the first picture of their proposed building.
