Developer Rocket Investments has awarded Mace the contract to build a landmark residential tower near Old Street roundabout in London.

Demolition contractor John F Hunt is clearing the existing brick building at 145 City Road to make way for the 40-storey apartment block, which will be known as the Atlas Building.

Mace is expected to start construction in July on the main resi block and adjacent 10-floor office building.

The project also contains a new public piazza and retail space for shops, cafes and restaurants and is due for completion at the end of 2018.

The concept design, which will accommodate 300 flats, was drawn up by architect Make, with Scott Brownrigg now acting as delivery architect.

Make’s striking design takes the form of a wafer of a dozen blades breaking up the tower’s mottled white facade.

Planned Atlas Building at 145 City Road

URS are structural engineers and GVA London Wall, the project managers.

It will be the sixth major high-rise residential building planned or under construction on City Road, which is undergoing a mini construction boom around the newly-dubbed Silicon Roundabout district.

Work is also shortly to get underway on a twin-tower scheme at 250 City Road for Berkeley Homes, which is construction managing the project and its the tallest high-rise the developer has delivered direct, preferring to use Brookfield Multiplex on its tallest buildings.

The Foster & Partners designed scheme comprises a 42-storey tower block and a 36-storey tower block. Demolition has been completed and main concrete package will be delivered by Laing O’Rourke’ Expanded business.

Berkeley Home’s twin tower resi scheme at 250 City Road

Greater London average prices:

– £594,585

– +2.5% monthly change

– +6.8% annual change

Best performers

– Tower Hamlets

– Westminster

– Kensington & Chelsea

– Southwark

– Bromley

Link to full report: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/files/2015/04/april-2015.pdf

Japan’s leading developer Mitsubishi Estate is to submit a planning application for a 40-storey office tower at the heart of the City of London.

The proposals for an office-led, mixed-use tower with public viewing gallery at the top have been designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects and resembles a stack of blocks.

The redevelopment of 6-8 Bishopsgate and 150 Leadenhall Street is rated as one of the most prized sites in the Square Mile nestled between the Cheesegrater and soon to be redeveloped site of the stalled Pinnacle building.

The London arm of Mitsubishi Estate is seeking to bring forward the comprehensive regeneration of the site.

Stanhope is the development manager  on the scheme, Arup is the structural and services engineer and Alinea is the cost consultant. Gerald Eve is advising on planning.

The 770,000 sq ft  building will comprises a series of five rotated building blocks. The higher up the tower, the narrower these volumes become, reducing in size to produce a slender tower form.

It has been conceived to be an exemplar in urban office design and will include some of the highest sustainability and low energy features. The scheme will exceed the threshold for the BREEAM NC 2014 “Excellent” rating.

Mr Naoki Umeda, managing director and CEO of Mitsubishi Estate London said: “The submission of this application represents Mitsubishi Estate’s confidence in  the City of London’s long term growth prospects as a world financial centre, and its attractiveness for blue chip companies.

“We look forward to enhancing the offer of the City further by delivering a striking landmark building on this fantastic location, which bridges London’s financial and insurance districts”.

Outline planning permission has been granted for the £3.5bn Silvertown Quay project on land neighbouring the Royal Docks in East London.

The 62 acre Royal Docks site will provide offices, leisure and retail facilities and 3,000 homes including affordable housing.

Chelsfield, alongside partners Imagination Europe and First Base are planning more than 3m sq ft of mixed-use space on the 50-acre docklands site owned by Government.

The first phase, which aims to be finished by 2018 in time for the new Crossrail connections, will see the iconic 450,000 sq ft Millennium Mills site converted into a hub for technology, media and telecoms businesses.

Work began earlier this year to strip out asbestos from the former flour mill as part of a £12m grant by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

At the core of the new London Quarter will be a series of branded pavilions to showcase and exhibit products from leading global brands.

The developers claim the re-enlivened dock will be the world’s first cluster of purpose-built centres for product innovation.

As part of the Section 106 legal agreement, the developer would provide £10m to Workplace, Newham Council’s job brokerage scheme, this would be used to provide training  and support for Newham residents to ensure they have the skills needed to take advantage of the 20,700 new jobs the development is expected to generate.

It is also hoped the development will create 20,700 jobs over the next 10 years.

The application will now be referred to the Mayor of London and then to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Secretary of State for Transport before a final decision can be issued.

Kier has been selected to build the £170m first phase of The Ram Quarter, a major flagship regeneration scheme in Wandsworth, London.

The deal will put Kier is a strong position to ultimately build all three phases of the Ram Quarter with a total value of around £600m.

Kier will deliver 338 of the 661 new homes planned for the site in a 36-storey tower as part of the scheme, which will be its first high-rise job in London.

The first phase of the project also includes the 56,000sq ft refurbishment and remodelling of the Grade II listed brewery complex, creating restaurants, boutique shops, cafés and bars, a micro-brewery, a brewery museum and residential units.

Kier will start enabling works this month with phase one scheduled for completion in early 2017.

Haydn Mursell, chief executive, said: “Kier has extensive experience in major mixed-use and regeneration projects in London and our breadth and depth of experience has positioned us to become a partner of choice for major city regeneration schemes.”

Willmott Dixon has landed a £14m deal to build a new Dorsett City hotel on the former site of The Matrix building in Aldgate.

It is the contractor’s first project for Dorsett Hospitality International, which operates 22 hotels around the world.

This will be Dorsett’s second hotel in London and Willmott Dixon will start on site next month to build the 13 storey complex next to Aldgate tube station and the 18th century St Botolph Church.

Demolition specialist Squibb Group has cleared the site for main construction.

When complete in December 2016 the hotel will provide 270 bedrooms along with a restaurant, fitness centre and 1,600 sq ft of meeting areas for the business community.

Roger Forsdyke, managing director at Willmott Dixon’s Cobham office said, “This is a really interesting office to hotel conversion right in the heart of The City of London, providing new capacity in this fast growing part of London.

“Importantly, it plays to our strengths and know-how of working on tight, constrained sites in urban locations, as well as our record for working in historic parts of London on landmark buildings.”

Kier has gained reserved matters planning consent for its latest mixed-use project at the King’s Cross Goods Yard site in London.

Badged R7 by developer Argent, the 150,000 sq ft will rise to 13 storeys in a west tower of offices above a cinema and shops, while the East tower will hold 11 storeys of offices above retail space at ground level.

Located to the north of the Regents Canal opposite the Grade II listed Granary Building and Central St Martins school of art, the scheme is worth around £60m.

By using a combination of complimentary passive and active design features to obtain very low carbon omissions the ‘bespoke’ BREEAM pre-assessment predicts that the building is on target to achieve an ‘Outstanding’ rating.

Work on R7 will start immediately; completion is due in 2017.

Kier is also due to build an adjacent building known as R8, a 200,000 sq ft scheme involving a mix of private and affordable housing.

Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Property Partners have today completed the takeover of Docklands developer Canary Wharf Group pledging to plough ahead with the massive development pipeline.

The £2.6bn deal for Canary Wharf owner Songbird Estates prompted the new owners to underline their commitment to the existing management building programme.

Ric Clark, CEO of Brookfield Property Group, said: “Canary Wharf remains one of the most treasured property estates in the world.

“With the transaction now concluded, we look forward to working with QIA and the Canary Wharf Group management team to advance the substantial development pipeline and to realise the full potential of the site for our tenants, stakeholders and the people of London.”

Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed Al Thani, CEO of QIA, said: “We are delighted that QIA and Brookfield have now concluded the acquisition of Songbird and Canary Wharf Group.

“We look forward to supporting the management’s strategy of pursuing further expansion through the creation of a sustainable, mixed development comprising offices, homes as well as retail and leisure space.”

Songbird’s shares will cease to trade on London’s AIM market from 23 April 2015.

Aerial view of Canary Wharf Estate once Wood Wharf is built out

The deal goes through as Canary Wharf Group is pressing ahead with plans to build out the last remaining sites with office and residential towers on its main Docklands Estate and gears up to start enabling works for the 4.9m sq ft Wood Wharf scheme to the east of its main site.

Canary Wharf is also set to start work shortly on the £1.2bn Shell Centre redevelopment on the South Bank in central London.

Berkeley Homes has gained planning for what will be the UK’s tallest residential building at a site in London Docklands.

The scheme will involve the demolition of a 1980s block on the South Quay Plaza site on the Isle of Dogs to build a 68-storey and 36-storey building.

The proposals, designed by architects Foster + Partners, have been dropped in height from the originally proposed 73 floors, which would have reached almost the height of One Canada Square.

London Mayor Boris Johnson wrote to Tower Hamlets late last month indicating he would not call in the scheme allowing final approval to be given.

The slender main tower will have a floor plate of two intersected squares, which maximises the views of London for each of the luxury flats. One part will rise to 68-storeys and a height of 220m and the other to 56 floors and be topped by a sky garden.

This will be built in phase one with the smaller twin building pushed into a second construction phase.

In total, 888 homes are planned in all, including 188 affordable properties.

Demolition contractors will clear the site at 183-189 Marsh Wall with construction expected to start in July next year running for nearly five years across the multi-phase site. Work on phase two will start in April 2018.

In total, the buildings will require around 65,000 cu m of concrete and 60,000 sq m of cladding.

The structural and M&E engineer on the job is WSP.

The tallest of the two towers will be built in phase one

Developer Canary Wharf Group has been granted full planning permission for 1 Bank Street and outline planning permission for 1 Park Place on its main docklands site in East London.

Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox, 1 Bank Street is planned as a 700,000 sq ft building with 27 storeys including three levels of trading floors and shops at ground level. There will also be public access to a new promenade along the South Dock.

Site enabling works started earlier this year and construction is now scheduled to begin later this year.

Banking giant Société Générale has already agreed a lease for 280,000 sq ft of 1 Bank Street. It will occupy the ground and first to seventh floors on a 25 year lease at a rent of £47.50 per sq ft and 36 months’ rent free commencing from the summer of 2019.

Tower Hamlets Strategic Planning Committee also granted outline planning permission for the 1 Park Place scheme, a 31-storey office building at the vacant site next to West India Middle Dock.

Consent has been given for an office building comprised of up to just over 1m sq ft of floorspace.

The Council will now determine a reserved matters application for this office building which is designed by Squires & Partners but there are no immediate plans to develop this site.

It will be located next to CWG’s proposed Diamond Tower residential skyscraper and a new 185m tower at Herons Quay West.