Developer Helical Bar has given contractor John Sisk the go-ahead to start work before Xmas on the extensive remodelling of a major office block at Old Street in London.

The firm will strip the existing offices back to the frame and then extend the building out and upwards before recladding at a cost of £70m.

The Tower at 207 Old Street, which was previously home to Amec,  is the second phase of The Bower development next to Silicon Roudabout where properties prices are soaring in the face of demand from tech companies for space..

This phase will provide 170,000 sq ft of office space and 7,300 sq ft of retail/restaurant space, on completion of the works.

Existing block and remodelled building

207 Old Street was constructed in the 1960s and overclad in the 1980s. The existing block will now be stripped back to the concrete frame and raised by two floors.

Its 60s slab architecture will be broken up with a full height steelwork extension to the front of the building. On the ground floor, a generously-sized portion of the building will be cut out to create a pedestrian link from Old Street through to Baldwin Street.

Developer Derwent is preparing to start its most ambitious London scheme to date – the redevelopment of the former Saatchi building at Charlotte Street.

Brookfield Multiplex will deliver the 380,000 sq ft mixed-use development in Fitzrovia, which is one of two major projects due to be started by June 2016.

The project start, which has been delayed for several months, will see the contractor deliver a part refurbishment and part new build (pic below).

A substantial proportion of the existing structures are being retained to reduce waste and carbon emissions and the construction programme.

The second major job in Paddington, known as the Brunel building will be delivered by Laing O’Rourke.

Its structure echoes as a smaller version the landmark Cheesegrater offices at 122 Leadenhall St, which was Laing O’Rourke’s first major high-rise project in London.

The 240,000 sq ft office is planned on one of the last sites in Paddington Basin on the banks of the Grand Union Canal and opposite Brunel’s Paddington Station,which lend the scheme its engineer’s name.

It will rise to 17 floors and is designed with an external supporting steel diagrid support frame to afford column-free floorplates.

Designed by Fletcher Priest Architects and engineered by Arup, construction at the 55-65 North Wharf Road site is due to start in early 2016 and complete in the first half of 2019.

In a third quarter trading statement this morning John Burns, Derwent chief executive officer, said: “The current year is our best ever for lettings.  We have also successfully recycled some more mature assets into several major opportunities and the Group’s development activity demonstrates confidence that the high level of occupier demand for our product is set to continue.”

London developer Great Portland Estates is planning to deliver its largest ever pipeline of work with spending on schemes set to top £500m.

In half year trading results, the developer said it had now started nine projects amounting to 853,200 sq ft, or a quarter of its total property assets.

GPE also plans to start two West End schemes in the next 24 months at Oxford House, W1 for Facebook and a 224,000 sq ft Crossrail over-station scheme at Hanover Square, W1.

Beyond that, its pipeline includes a further dozen projects, taking the total development programme to 2.5m sq ft. This could take planned investment on building to £513m.

In the last six months GPE has committed to delivering 148 Old Street, EC1,  a major refurbishment of a 97,800 sq ft former Post Office building to create around 156,900 sq ft of offices. Strip out of the building has commenced  for completion in September 2017.

148 Old Street will be stripped back to its structural frame and fitted with new facades of glazed white and engineering brick.

In September, GPE received planning permission at Tasman House, 59/63 Wells Street, W1, to replace a tired 1950′s building with 37,300 sq ft of new office and retail space. The strip out of the building is complete and demolition has commenced with the scheme due for completion in October 2017.

The developer’s committed programme also includes: 90/92 Great Portland Street, W1, which contains the offsite residential offset for Hanover Square, W1;  84/86 Great Portland Street, W1; a 23,100 sq ft mixed-use scheme which contains the offsite residential offset for Tasman House, W1; and 48/50 Broadwick Street, W1, the residential offset for 73/89 Oxford Street, W1.

British Land has appointed former Argent chief executive Roger Madelin to lead the development of its 46-acre Canada Water site in London.

Madelin, who led Argent’s King’s Cross development team, will join the developer in February and also sit on British Land’s executive committee.

British Land has been steadily assembling parcels of land at Canada Water in south east London and now has potential for around 5.5m sq ft of office, retail, residential, leisure, educational and community space.

The major, long term project will be delivered in several phases to deliver a mixed-use town centre development.

Canada Water

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 08.03.30

British Land is currently working with the London Borough of Southwark and local communities to deliver the Canada Water Masterplan and expects to submit a planning application by the end of next year.

Chris Grigg, chief executive, said: “Roger Madelin is a highly experienced developer and brings enormous experience of delivering major mixed-use developments.

“Placemaking lies at the heart of what we do and I look forward to working with Roger to create a vibrant new destination for London that caters for a wide range of modern needs.”

Madelin, said: “The combination of the physical opportunity at Canada Water, working with British Land and with the thoughtful and ambitious London Borough of Southwark was an opportunity too exciting to turn down.

“I have had an amazing 29 years at Argent. The completion of the last phases of King’s Cross are in talented and safe hands.”

A planning framework to deliver more than 25,500 new homes at Old Oak and Park Royal in West London has been approved by Mayor Boris Johnson.

Old Oak is set to become a transport hub with both a High Speed 2 and Crossrail Station opened by 2026, offering vast development potential for the area.

The Mayor believes the site could create tens of thousands of new homes and provide almost 14% of Greater London’s employment needs up to 2031, with early estimates of a £7bn annual contribution to the UK economy.

The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation was launched in April and will drive the planning and regeneration of the site that straddles the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Brent and Ealing.

Earlier this year, the Mayor published an Opportunity Area Planning Framework for consultation, which sets out his long-term vision for the area. Following the conclusion of that consultation, the Mayor has now approved the document which sets the strategic planning direction for the area.

Sir Edward Lister, deputy mayor for planning and chairman of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, said: “London urgently needs new homes and commercial space to meet its ever growing population and there can be no doubt that the regeneration of Old Oak represents a real opportunity to meet those needs.

“This strategy will mean we can plan for the future of this vast site as we work to create a new, thriving and sustainable part of the capital, where people will love to live, work, play and visit.”

Chancellor George Osborne will today launch the National Infrastructure Commission and promise to stick to his pledge to spend £100bn in this Parliament for new roads, rail, flood defences and other vital projects.

He will set out plans to ‘get Britain building’, saying that infrastructure will be at the heart of next month’s Spending Review.

In the review, the Chancellor will set out plans to raise billions of pounds from a suite of asset sales that will be ploughed back into infrastructure projects.

Later today in York, Osborne will also confirm the seven commissioners who will help former Cabinet minister Lord Adonis run the independent National Infrastructure Commission.

The line-up includes Lord Heseltine and experienced industry bigwig, Sir John Armitt, who backed the formation of the commission in a Labour policy document before the last election.

The Chancellor said: “I am determined to shake Britain out of its inertia on infrastructure and end the situation where we trail our rivals when it comes to building everything from the housing to the power stations that our children will need.

“At the Spending Review, I will commit to investing £100bn in infrastructure over the next five years and we are creating an independent commission to give us a long-term, unbiased analysis of the country’s major infrastructure needs.

“We need to think long-term and deliver a cross-party consensus on what we need to build.”

The commission will produce a report at the start of each five-year Parliament, offering recommendations for priority infrastructure projects and  hold governments to account for their delivery.

Its initial focus will be in three key areas.  These include  identifying priorities for future investment in the North’s strategic transport infrastructure to improve connectivity between cities, especially east-west across the Pennines.

London’s transport system, particularly reviewing strategic options and identifying priorities for future investment in large scale transport improvements – on road, rail and underground – including Crossrail 2.

Energy, particularly exploring how the UK can better balance supply and demand, aiming for an energy market where prices are reflective of costs to the overall system

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