A development and loan facility worth £190 million will enable the Canary Wharf Group to add half a million square feet of office space to the total supply in central London markets. Completion is expected before the end of 2014.
See examples of Offices for Rent in Canary Wharf
According to a statement from the Barclays Group, close to half of the office space available at 30 Churchill Place has already been pre-let by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Barclays is among the banks making the relevant loan facilities available to developers. In fact, Barclays is acting as the coordinator, agent, and security trustee on the scheme.
“We are delighted to have concluded this facility in the current difficult financial market,” commented Peter Anderson, the Canary Wharf Group’s managing director of finance.
“It shows that with a good consortium of lenders and the right project, it is still possible to raise significant construction funding. We can now start construction in early 2012, knowing we have secured all the necessary finance.”
Canary Wharf is now well established as a vital centre for business activity in central London, particularly in the financial services industry. Some of the largest banking groups and insurance firms in the world are among those currently renting offices at its various developments.
The Canary Wharf Group, based at One Canada Square, boasts an extensive portfolio of rentable office space and has been operating in the capital since the early 1990s.
Along with Barclays, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, and the Royal Bank of Scotland are the landers making the £190 million facility available to add a new office tower to the East London skyline.
Editor’s notes: 30 Churchill Place was completed in 2014, and in addition to the EMA renting Levels 1 to 10, Ernst and Young (EY) agreed to lease Levels 11 to 21 in 2015.
Due to BREXIT, the EMA announced its departure from the UK in 2017 and its intention to relocate to Amsterdam. It then sublet its space to flexible workspace provider WeWork.
In April 2024, it was announced that The University of Sunderland had taken nearly 100,000 sq ft of office space at Harbour Exchange in Canary Wharf, in one of the largest education lettings in the Docklands.
The university was a previous tenant at Canary Wharf, having leased circa 9,000 sq ft in 2012, and committed to the new 15-year lease for 95,628 sq ft of office space at 4 and 5 HX.
In the same month, it was also announced that Morgan Stanley had agreed to keep its 547,000 sq ft European headquarters in Canary Wharf for another 14 years. It agreed to extend the end of its lease from 2028 to 2038 at 20 Bank Street and would retain its space at nearby 25 Cabot Street.
Barclays also agreed, in early 2024, to extend their lease at One Churchill Place by five years to 2039.