The joint venture between the two commercial property giants had been mooted for some time but the pair are now officially in cahoots on what will be an enormous office space development due for completion in the first half of 2014.
Both parties are promising high-quality office space that will add considerable diversity to their respective existing portfolios of commercial property in London’s most sought-after locations.
Robert Noel, Land Securities’ managing director for its London portfolio, said: “The joint venture brings together two substantial companies with complementary skills in the conception and delivery of large schemes in London.”
“The transaction allows us to take forward other projects within our substantial development pipeline in London so that we offer a range of building types and sizes in a range of locations across the capital.”
Construction of a substructure at the Fenchurch Street site is expected to get underway almost immediately and the 37-storey office space development is ultimately intended to offer some 690,000 square feet of office space in central London.
In August of this year, Land Securities agreed deals to rent a total of 21,600 square feet of office space at its Mark Lane building, which is in the same EC3 postcode as its newly planned £500 million “superstructure”.
Editor’s notes: Construction of 20 Fenchurch Street was completed in Spring 2014 and its unique 3-storey ‘Skygarden’ opened in 2015.
The building, nicknamed ‘The Fenchurch Building’ and ‘The Walkie-Talkie’, was sold to Hong Kong food company Lee Kum Kee Group for £1.3 billion in July 2017.
This valued Landsec’s share in the deal at £641m allowing them to return £475 million to shareholders.
In 2023, occupiers at the office building include Kiln Group, Markel and CNA Hardy.