British Land and Blackstone Group have been given permission to knock the building down in order to make way for a new headquarters for Swiss banking giant UBS.
It was a highly unusual move for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ignore the advice of English Heritage.
In a letter to English Heritage, the Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt admitted that the building was “impressive” but added that it failed to meet “the high bar of outstanding quality”.
The Chief Executive of British Land Chris Grigg welcomed the move, saying that it “allows Broadgate to continue to evolve as a sustainable and flexible office location that will meet the future needs of occupiers whilst maintaining the sense of space and place for which it is rightly renowned around the globe.”
He added that the move was a message to the rest of the world that the UK was “open for business.”
British Land, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the UK, along with Blackstone Group, intend to build a GBP 850 million 700,000 square foot building to replace the one that will be knocked down.
The new building will be the biggest in the City.
When complete, the building will allow UBS to bring all its staff under one roof. Currently, they are located in different office spaces around the Broadgate area.
The Broadgate building was opened in 1985, and according to English Heritage was symbolic of Thatcherite Britain, when the financial services industry took a prime place in the UK’s economic landscape.
English Heritage stated: “Broadgate Square may not be everyone’s idea of heritage, but every decade has its architectural high points, and the 1980s are no different.”
Editor’s notes: Whilst UBS are committed to leasing the 700,000 square feet of office space until 2035, there are flexible workspace and office space solutions available at The Broadgate Tower operated by flex space provider Regus.
The Regus space at Broadgate Tower includes private furnished and serviced office suites, coworking desks in shared offices and meeting rooms.
All options are available on short flexible terms, occupiers have the option to expand or contract within the space and the monthly rental fee is inclusive of overheads such as utilities, cleaning, buildings insurance, reception services and so on.