Speculative City office scheme gets green light

BREEAM ‘Excellent’ building planned for Monument Street

Article posted: 14 Sep 2011

Rockspring Property Investment Managers, together with its development partner, Charterfield Asset Management, have secured a resolution to grant planning permission for the redevelopment of Centurion House, EC3, to provide 80,000 sq ft of new Grade A office space in the City of London.

Located in the heart of the Square Mile, the new scheme, designed by David Walker Architects, allows for the comprehensive redevelopment of the building to provide a stunning new Grade A office building of approximately 80,000 sq ft, which also includes two new ground floor retail units. The existing building, which was only acquired in December last year, was originally built in the mid 1980’s and consists of 61,000 sq ft of outdated office space on Monument Street, directly opposite the famous obelisk.

The plans provide for not only a one third increase in the net lettable area of the building, but also a significant improvement in the quality of the accommodation, with the planned specification including column free space, floor to ceiling windows and an impressive reception / entrance hall. The building is targeted to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

Strip-out of the building has already commenced, with demolition scheduled to begin in October. The main construction contract is planned to start early in the New Year, with delivery of the completed building targeted for Q2 2013.

Richard Bains, Fund Manager at Rockspring, said: “Since acquiring this project last year, we have drawn up ambitious plans to create an entirely new ground up development which will appeal to a wide range of City occupiers.  Securing this planning resolution will now enable us to deliver the Grade A office in the second quarter of 2013, at a time where we see little competition in the market for comparable space.”

Knight Frank and Newton Perkins are the letting agents for Centurion House.

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Posted by Sam