The City of London is set to get a new £1 billion skyscraper in what is being seen as a post-Brexit, post-pandemic vote of confidence in the capital’s office market.
The investment division of Axa, the French insurer, has bought a 250-year lease for 50 Fenchurch Street from The Clothworkers’ Company, one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City founded in 1528.
On the 1.2-acre plot, a stone’s throw from Fenchurch Street railway station, Axa IM Alts intends to build a 36-storey building, which will have grasses and plants running down one side of it. Planning consent has been secured.
Work on the 150m high building is due to start in 2024 and will last until 2028. It is estimated that it will cost more than £1 billion to construct and will offer 650,000 sq ft of office space and some retail and dining units at ground level.
Demand for modern, environmentally friendly office space has surged in recent years, and Axa IM Alts is aiming for the top office sustainability ranking available. It also expects the building to be net zero in operation.
Isabelle Scemama, global head of Axa IM Alts, said that she expected this “flight to quality to become even more acute over the coming years . . . 50 Fenchurch presents us with another rare opportunity to secure a prime development site in the City of London, which we continue to believe is one of the most desirable office locations in the world.”
Since Axa IM Alts opened its skyscraper at 22 Bishopsgate in the City only 18 months ago, more than a million sq ft of office space has been let.
The Times (Tom Howard) - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b085693e-0399-11ed-aa15-45d37b45dc0d?shareToken=13f3ad7c98132976f247c26311e80fb4
Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash