Canary Wharf Group plc (“Canary Wharf Group”) has commenced construction of 25 Churchill Place at Canary Wharf, central London, which is to be the new office headquarters of the European Medicines Agency.
Two cranes have been erected and the slip formed concrete core will soon start to appear on the Canary Wharf skyline. This 20 storey 500,000 sq. ft. building will provide the local economy and construction supply chain with thousands of much needed jobs.
Contracts for the building’s construction have been awarded to Byrne Bros, one of the UK’s premier concrete contractors, who will provide the building’s concrete and to Kone, who will install the elevators, including environmentally friendly lift motors that store and re-use energy elsewhere in the building. The cladding will be supplied and installed by Seele. The contract terms were not disclosed.
Contracts to be awarded later this year include structural steel and mechanical and electrical packages. The architects are Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Construction of the shell, core and fit out is being undertaken by Canary Wharf Contractors Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canary Wharf Group.
The building is set for completion in late 2014 and is symbolic, as it is the last office site on the original Canary Wharf masterplan to be developed. The building sits adjacent to Wood Wharf, a 4.6m sq. ft. mixed-use future development site, of which Canary Wharf Group purchased control from its former joint venture partners last month for a combined £90m.
In August last year it was announced 250,000 sq ft of the building has been pre-let to the European Medicines Agency. The balance of the space will be marketed by Canary Wharf Group as construction progresses and the supply of grade A office space in central London continues to tighten. In accordance with Canary Wharf Group’s development strategy, the building’s substructure has already been completed.
In December last year Canary Wharf Group secured a £190m development and investment loan facility for the development of 25 Churchill Place. The facility was secured from a syndicate of banks consisting of Barclays Bank PLC, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, Lloyds TSB and The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; with Barclays also acting as coordinator, agent and security trustee.
John Pagano, Managing Director of Development at Canary Wharf Group said: “25 Churchill Place will provide a major boost to the local economy, in terms of jobs and contracts and retaining yet another world-class organisation in central London.”
EMA will occupy the promenade, ground and first nine office floors of the building at an agreed rent of £46.50 per sq ft commencing on 1 January 2015 with five-yearly upwards-only rent reviews. The length of the lease is 25 years with no breaks and EMA has options to take an additional four floors of around 27,500 sq ft each.
25 Churchill Place will be one of the most environment-friendly buildings at Canary Wharf to date. Environmental features will deliver an expected ‘excellent’ BREEAM environment performance rating and an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of 40 or better. Features include the latest ultra-efficient air-conditioning equipment that recycles the energy from exhaust air and photo voltaic cells to generate energy from the sun’s rays.
