Great Portland to define post-Covid office with West End scheme

Great Portland Estates hopes to develop a new office scheme in the West End that it says will be designed with “post-Covid-19 working requirements” front of mind. The FTSE 250 REIT wants to knock down the existing buildings at 180 Piccadilly and 48-50 Jermyn Street, W1, to make way for an eight-storey, 111,000 sq ft office block with two ground floor units for retail or restaurants.  A planning statement lodged with Westminster City Council notes that the office space currently in the buildings is “inflexible and difficult to use” but that the redevelopment will be “enhanced and expanded… catering for office tenants in post-Covid-19 working requirements”. Some of that space will be for flexible and co-working usage.  The Make-designed plan is “underpinned by a desire to improve health and wellbeing wherever possible and encourages sustainable transport in order to do this”, according to the planning statement. Three of the floors will have terraces, with a further communal roof terrace for use by all tenants. There will be 116 cycle parking spaces. GPE will emphasise a decarbonised development that will contribute to its goal of net zero by 2030, according to the project’s sustainability statement, with a further focus on designing “climate change-resilient and adaptable spaces”. The site currently comprises two offices buildings in an L-shape around a central courtyard. 180 Piccadilly is a seven-storey building dating back to the 1960s with retail on the ground floor. 48-50 Jermyn Street is a five-storey building built in the mid-1950s. GPE bought the buildings from Henderson Global Investors for almost £40m in 2012. To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@egi.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @estatesgazette Image © Great Portland Estates