City Road offices set for residential conversion

Rocket Investments plans residential scheme with £200m twin-tower development

Article posted: 01 May 2011

Rocket Investments has acquired office space in the City of London at Crown House, 145 City Road, EC1, and announced that it proposes to develop a twin-tower residential-led scheme in its place.

Crown House is currently fully let to NIG which is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland, and has strong short term income, but it was the longer term investment opportunity that interested Rocket when it purchased the property for £25m from Glanmore Property Fund last month.

Located just north of Old Street roundabout, the 70,000 sq ft office building will be demolished when NIG’s lease expires in two years time. Rocket has not yet appointed an architect for the new scheme but it is thought that the new development will comprise two towers of up to 35 storeys each. A planning application is expected to be submitted early next year.

At nearby Linen Court, Rocket is currently developing a 40,000 sq ft office block designed by award-winning architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. Completion is scheduled for November 2011 on the property which will deliver the first ‘full specification’ offices in the Old Street area to be built for a number of years.

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Posted by Janet