Helical plc has exchanged a development agreement with Transport for London (‘TfL’) with respect to the Over Station Development at the Farringdon East Crossrail Station which will lead to the creation of an office-led scheme with a gross development value of over £120m.
A new 150 year lease is to be granted on handover of the site which is due in April 2018 shortly after which construction is expected to begin. The site has planning permission for a PLP designed six storey office building of c 90,000 sq ft, incorporating a retail/restaurant unit on the corner of Lindsay Street and Charterhouse Street, all above the Farringdon East Crossrail Station.
The building will sit immediately to the east of Smithfield Market with views over Charterhouse Square and it also benefits from an extensive roof terrace with views towards St Paul’s Cathedral. Completion of the scheme is expected in October 2019.
Farringdon East Crossrail Station is due to be operational in December 2018 and will make Farringdon one of the biggest transport interchanges in Britain with 140 trains per hour. Farringdon will be the only station from which passengers will be able to access all three rail networks – Crossrail, Thameslink and the London Underground – and is expected to receive 27 million passengers a year. The Elizabeth Line will provide access to Bond Street in four minutes, Paddington in seven minutes, Canary Wharf in eight minutes and Heathrow in 31 minutes.
Matthew Bonning-Snook, Property Director at Helical, commented: “We are a great believer in the potential of the area given the significant impact of Crossrail and due to the wealth of cultural and public realm improvements that are planned and underway locally. Our adjacent office scheme overlooking Charterhouse Square, which is fully let, together with our Barts Square project which delivers a new urban quarter to the City and Smithfield, further highlights this belief. We will deliver a stunning statement building enlivened by fine–scaled elevations inspired by the 19th century warehouses that frame the historic Smithfield Market. The external treatment of the building is sympathetic to its surroundings and reflects the colour palette of the architecture in the area, including vertical terracotta fins which will provide a different reading to each elevation dependent on the direction from which the building is viewed.”
Graeme Craig, Director of Commercial Development at TfL, said “The Elizabeth line is set to redefine travel across our city and it is fantastic to see the sites above some of the major central London stations progressing. They will deliver much needed homes, office and commercial space and have been planned as an integral part of the development of the new railway, supporting new jobs and driving economic growth.”
JLL and Pilcher Hershman acted on behalf of Helical and TfL was advised by Deloitte, with the scheme designed by PLP Architects.
