The wholesale refurbishment of the Grade II listed CIS Tower will provide 336,500 sq ft of Grade A office floorspace.

The project will see the former headquarters for Co-operative Insurance Society completely reclad, given an internal refit and be renamed.

Devonshire (CIS Tower), an entity of Castlebrooke Investments, bought the iconic building in 2017 for around £60m and now the Co-operative Bank will vacate it this Autumn.

The tower, which was built in 1962 at a cost of £4m, comprises a five-storey podium block, a 26 storey main office tower connected to a 28-storey service tower, fronted by a large plaza onto Miller Street.

New facade will consist of high-visibility glazing and black spandrel panels with expressed, I-section mullions.

Plans have just gone for the refit which has been designed by architect Simpson Haugh with Crookes Walker supporting the work as MEP consultant and Curtins handling structural engineering.

Ramboll is acting as the facade engineer while Paragon BUilding Consultancy drew on the 77-week refit programme.

The developers hope to gain planning this year to start facade replacement before the end of the year. The internal fit-out is expected to get underway at the start of 2021.