THREE of Britain’s biggest property development groups were given the green light yesterday to start building more than 1.5 million sq ft of new office and shopping projects in the City of London.
Gerald Ronson, the property entrepreneur, has been granted permission for a revised 41-storey skyscraper at 110 Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street station — four storeys higher than the original project that was approved in 2002.
Mr Ronson plans to build the tower on a speculative basis, without prospective tenants, starting next year.
The extra four floors include a three-storey office village and an expanded public restaurant and bar. Design changes will make the building more energy efficient and there is a new public space at the base of the building.
Land Securities, the UK’s biggest quoted property company, has gained approval for an office and shopping project at One New Change, close to St Paul’s Cathedral. The 560,000 sq ft scheme is expected to start construction in the autumn.
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UBS has been granted permission to demolish Mondial House, a former BT telephone exchange next to Cannon Street station, to make way for a 545,000 sq ft office and shopping project, which will be called Watermark Place.
The three projects will hope to benefit from improvements to the commercial office leasing market, which remained subdued in London last year.
It also emerged that Land Securities has agreed to sell a portfolio of shopping centres and high street shops to the Norwich Property Trust, part of Morley Fund Management, for just over £95 million.