Square Mile planning boss: Covid won’t crush the City
London’s skyline will continue to be reshaped by new towers despite concerns over the future of the office post-Covid, according to the chair of the Square Mile’s planning committee.
Alastair Moss told EG that several developers were still in pre-application talks with the City of London Corporation over bringing forward new additions to London’s skyline, while Hong Kong-based developer Tenacity has recently submitted plans to turn 70 Gracechurch Street, EC3, into a 33-storey tower.
There were also plenty of bidders, including Axa Investment Managers, for the Fenchurch development site offered up by The Clothworkers Company, which received planning earlier this year for a 35-storey tower.
London’s skyline will continue to be reshaped by new towers despite concerns over the future of the office post-Covid, according to the chair of the Square Mile’s planning committee.
Alastair Moss told EG that several developers were still in pre-application talks with the City of London Corporation over bringing forward new additions to London’s skyline, while Hong Kong-based developer Tenacity has recently submitted plans to turn 70 Gracechurch Street, EC3, into a 33-storey tower.
There were also plenty of bidders, including Axa Investment Managers, for the Fenchurch development site offered up by The Clothworkers Company, which received planning earlier this year for a 35-storey tower.
Elsewhere in the City, Brookfield is understood to be considering a redevelopment of 99 Bishopsgate, EC2, after its main tenant law firm Latham & Watkins placed 199,000 sq ft under offer at its planned redevelopment of 1 Leadenhall, EC3.
“The pandemic is going to change some of our behaviours, but it’s not going to be so seismic a change that it means the effective, efficient use of space is going to suddenly change,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the City is about great quality space for commerce, business and trade and we’re confident that people will fill that space for those purposes.”
He added that businesses are now far more alive to productivity and outputs, which he believes will see people back in offices again.
“If there was a wholesale lack of faith in the office market we wouldn’t be seeing the level of pre-application advice that we’re giving.
“People wouldn’t spend millions of pounds going through any of these [planning] processes if they felt there wasn’t a future it.”
However, the corporation is focused on attracting a more diverse range occupiers to make sure it remains competitive.
Moss said the corporation was promoting this through its policies of making sure highly flexible buildings with a “shelf life” of more than 30 years are now built, unlike some of the buildings developed in the past few decades.
He added buildings which might have an expiration date wouldn’t be “tolerated” now.
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