Main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine originally was due to finish the 564,000 sq ft City office scheme above Crossrail’s Liverpool Street Moorgate ticket office by November this year.
This slipped before the pandemic to March 2022 and now has been pushed back once more to July.
McAlpine doubled the facility space for construction workers in order to accommodate more workers in a Covid-secure way at the 21 Moorfields site.
Weekend working was also introduced to mitigate some of the delays resulting from lower on-site capacity, but as a result of lower on-site capacity, practical completion has now been put back to July 2022.
It three other schemes in construction – Lucent (Piccadilly), The Forge (Southwark) and n2 (Victoria) – are now fully committed to after Landsec initially negotiated break options with contractors to give flexibility around capital spending
Completion dates at The Forge, Lucent and n2 are June 2022, December 2022 and June 2023 respectively.
Landsec said that additional costs resulting from the impact of Covid-19 had been accommodated within the contingency allowances of the schemes’ total development costs.
It was are already reported occupier interest in its three speculative schemes which it will continue to work towards securing pre-lets on.
Three pipeline schemes awaiting pre-lets
At Portland House, SW1, strip out and design works continued through to the end of April. We are currently assessing the potential timing of the scheme and are likely to pause to manage development exposure.
Laing O’Rourke has signed a PCSA deal for the £195m Timber Square job in Bankside
At Timber Square in Southwark, demolition of the existing building is due to commence by the end of May 2021 with a decision on development of the zero carbon office building to be taken by the autumn.
Existing building at development site
At 55 Old Broad Street, EC2, we will continue to work towards vacant possession in December 2024. In the meantime, we will be working up development plans while protecting short-term income.
