A planning application has been submitted for the 31 storey office building at New City Court in the London Bridge Area.

Designed by AHMM architects, the offices will rise to 139m offering 370,000 sq ft of office and groundfloor retail space.

The project would require demolition of buildings at 20 St Thomas Street and would also see the front elevation of existing Georgian buildings retained and Keat House reconstructed.

The tower will boast a 250-seat auditorium and terrace on the 21st and 22nd floors and an elevated double height public garden within the building on the fifth and sixth floors.

Gardiner and Theobald is on board and has drawn up the construction management plan.

Toby Courtauld, chief executive, said the London Bridge project was one of its most exciting schemes in a development pipeline of 11 projects equating to 1.3m sq ft.

GPE has also committed to three projects in London.

In a trading update, he said at Oxford House, 76 Oxford Street, W1, demolition of the existing building is complete and groundworks have commenced.

At Hanover Square, W1, following the acquisition of the land in October 2018 that sits above the eastern entrance of the Bond Street Crossrail Station, GPE has commenced construction of the main office building at 18 Hanover Square.

The scheme will deliver 221,300 sq ft in total, comprising 167,200 sq ft of offices, 41,900 sq ft of retail and restaurant space and 12,200 sq ft of residential apartments.

Construction of  Cityside House near Whitechapel was progressing well with the  74,700 sq ft Grade A office and retail building expected to open at the end of this year.

The house builder is paying £22.2m for the 0.9 acre Nine Elms Park plot, which it aims to develop in partnership with property and construction group  O’Shea.

The £130m scheme will consist of around 262 flats, of which a quarter will be affordable housing.

Royal Mail’s former South London mail centre site covers  14 acres, of which 8.35 acres are developable and hold outline planning consent.

Nine Elms Park is centred on a linear park, which runs the length of the site east to west, alongside residential-led development and commercial space.

It extends from the new US Embassy to the planned Northern Line extension, which will provide two stations within walking distance.  

With a masterplan by architects Allies and Morrison, Nine Elms Park comprises seven development plots and Plot C is the third plot to be sold, sitting on the southwestern edge of the regeneration area, overlooking the designated Park Basin communal/cultural open space, adjacent to the area of the site committed for a school.

Nine Elms Park outline plan

• 7 building plots, buildings up to 23 storeys.
• Overall floor space of 2.2m sq ft.
• Up to 1,870 residential units.
• 90,000 sq ft of retail (use classes A1 to A5, D1 and D2).
• 160,000 sq ft of business (storage & distribution) floor space (B8).
• A new ‘linear park’

Stephen Conway, Executive Chairman of Galliard Homes said: “Galliard Homes is pleased to have acquired this central London consented site, which once complete will be located within a park setting, just a short walk to the River Thames and Houses of Parliament.

“The wider regeneration area is creating a new destination for South London and has already attracted several major occupiers.”

Chief executive Mark Wild told the London Assembly Transport Committee that there are “thousands of hours of construction work still to be done.”

He said construction work on the stations is now scheduled to be completed this summer before full fit-out work and testing of the line gets underway.

The scheme is currently £2.5bn over budget and a new opening “window” will not be outlined until next month.

Wild said: “By the end of July we are looking for major construction work and wiring testing at the stations to be completed.

“We will then hope to have an opening window by the end of quarter one, but I have no idea how wide that window will be.”

The committee heard how the previous Crossrail management team had bungled initial system integration and testing on the route which was started too early alongside live construction work.

Wild added that the previous executive team had “been overwhelmed by the complexity of the task” of building Crossrail.

A number of former executives were paid hundreds of thousands in performance bonuses as they continually insisted the project was “on time and on budget”.

Wild took over as Crossrail chief executive in November when he discovered construction work on none of the stations was near completion and extra funds needed were £2.5bn rather than previous estimates of £300m.