A scheme that will see thousands of square feet of quality office space added to supplies in the West End of London has been given the green light by local planning authorities.
As a result, a two-pronged project will soon get started at 7-10 Hanover Square and 103-109 Wardour Street in the heart of one of the most exclusive property districts in Europe.
The investment firm Legal & General Property (LGP) is financing the redevelopment efforts and has welcomed the approval of the relevant planning applications. Those plans include seeing 56,000 sq ft of new offices created at 7-10 Hanover, along with a series of high-class residential apartments at the soon-to-be-renovated site on Wardour Street.
LGP has said it expects London’s primary office space markets to perform well over the next few years and beyond. The new offices at 7-10 Hanover Square are to be made available typically on the basis of floors covering 8,200 sq ft, with completion scheduled for March 2017.
“With a shortage of high quality West End office space, both in terms of current supply and that forecast to come to the market, we believe 7-10 Hanover Square has the potential to take advantage of strong occupier demand when it is delivered to the market in 2017,” said Simon Wilkes, head of business space development at LGP.
“Additionally, with a Crossrail station due to be positioned directly opposite the scheme, we feel sure that Hanover Square will take its place as one of the premium business addresses in London and benefit greatly from this and the other regeneration projects that support the area.”
A recent report from the real estate advisory firm Colliers International noted that the final three months of 2012 saw office leasing activity in the West End become relatively subdued. Nevertheless, there were several major new deals struck in the quarter with LinkedIn’s letting of 45,000 sq ft of new offices in Covent Garden proving to be the largest.