Dominvs plans 780-bed City of London PBSA scheme
Dominvs Group has submitted plans to build a 780-bed student housing development in the City of London.
The company wants to knock down the five-storey Friary Court office block at 65 Crutched Friars, EC3, and replace it with a 21-storey tower, which as well as student housing will provide cultural and community space on the ground floor.
Dominvs said its design for the site, handled by 3XN Architects, pay tribute to the area’s “strong religious heritage” and connections to “literary culture”, and will reflect the idea of a scriptorium, or medieval European monastery writing room, which it added stood “at the intersection of the themes”. The plans include a public courtyard by Northumberland Alley and the potential for a new pocket park along Rangoon Street.
Dominvs Group has submitted plans to build a 780-bed student housing development in the City of London.
The company wants to knock down the five-storey Friary Court office block at 65 Crutched Friars, EC3, and replace it with a 21-storey tower, which as well as student housing will provide cultural and community space on the ground floor.
Dominvs said its design for the site, handled by 3XN Architects, pay tribute to the area’s “strong religious heritage” and connections to “literary culture”, and will reflect the idea of a scriptorium, or medieval European monastery writing room, which it added stood “at the intersection of the themes”. The plans include a public courtyard by Northumberland Alley and the potential for a new pocket park along Rangoon Street.
Friary Court, close to Fenchurch Street station, is currently the headquarters of Holman Fenwick Willan, but will be vacant as of May 2023 when the law firm moves to 8 Bishopsgate, EC2.
In a Cushman & Wakefield report on Friary Court’s use as office space, filed alongside Dominvs’ planning application to the City of London Corporation, the agency said the 1980s building “is nearing the end of its designed life cycle”. It was last refurbished 14 years ago, Cushman said, and “is very much of its time with characteristics that do not conform to the continually moving but consistently high expectations of modern office occupiers and investors for top-grade accommodation”.
The site is also at a disadvantage owing to its distance from a Crossrail station, the agency added, the nearest being Liverpool Street. Any office-focused overhaul, from a basic refurbishment to a full redevelopment, would offer an IRR “below the expectations of market investors”.
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Photos © 3XN Architects
