The City of London Corporation’s Planning Applications Sub-Committee has approved a 54-storey tower on the doorstep of UK’s busiest station, Liverpool Street Station.
Delivering almost 100,000sqm of future commercial space, economic and employment growth, an iconic new tower will become one of the tallest in the Square Mile.
Proposals submitted for the site at 99 Bishopsgate, will provide more than 8% of the proposed City Plan target of office floorspace, as the Corporation aims to deliver an additional minimum of 1.2m sqm, by 2040.
Responding to increasing demand for new office schemes of this kind, 99 Bishopsgate is set to achieve the highest level of sustainability credentials, whilst generating upwards of 7,500 jobs that are easily connected to local public transport routes, helping to maintain its international competitiveness, benefitting London and the UK’s economy.
According to global property consultancy Knight Frank, availability in newly constructed office buildings has fallen to 0.5 per cent in the City of London, causing prime rents in the area to rise 16 per cent over the past 12 months. It was also reported that the City’s tallest office building at 22 Bishopsgate, had recently become 100% let.
In addition to its provision of much needed, best in class office space, the scheme would contribute an inclusive 7-day visitor destination experience, with a bespoke cultural offer in the form of a new pavilion building space, planned to be occupied by ‘Intermission Youth’, a charitable company set up to help disadvantaged young people through access to theatre.
The 99 Bishopsgate scheme will also deliver transformational public realm improvements that will be welcoming for all communities. A new network of pedestrian routes linking in to the recently consented 55 Bishopsgate and 55 Old Broad Street developments will see a 1013% increase in public space, linking into wider pedestrian routes from Liverpool Street Station to the City Cluster and beyond.
Added to this, a new retail, food and beverage hub will feature on the ground floor, acting as a ‘City Market’, complete with seating areas that will welcome visitors into the huge, new public space, that would transform the site into a gateway to the City Cluster from the north.
Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, Shravan Joshi, said: “A much-needed office development has been approved in the City of London and it speaks to the confidence that global investors have in the local real estate market, as well as the UK economy, more widely.”
“The 99 Bishopsgate scheme will also give the Square Mile one of the largest public realm upgrades from a single planning application, in recent history, increasing the ‘walkability’ of the City, so that it becomes a safer and more pleasant place to travel through.”
