星空传媒

A winner has been chosen for another City tower as the race for several London commercial schemes narrows ahead of appointments being made before the summer slowdown in August.

星空传媒 understands Skanska has signed up for a PCSA on Landsec鈥檚 55 Old Broad Street development, having beaten Mace in the final run-in.

The 290,000 sq ft scheme will see a 24-storey tower designed by Fletcher Priest replace a 1970s-built block which had included a pub and bank at street level.

Keltbray is carrying out demolition work at the site, diagonally opposite the 75 London Wall redevelopment where Erith is also carrying out demolition and structures work at that 拢400m scheme due to be built by Multiplex.

The City gave the Landsec scheme the green light in November 2023 despite objections from the Victorian Society which said the tower, which will be partially cantilevered over a listed Victorian bath house, would 鈥渆ngulf鈥� the 1895 Turkish-style building.

Work is set to start next year although Landsec has said it won鈥檛 start any speculative London office schemes until it has signed up tenants on two schemes it is due to finish next year.

The developer has already said it is scaling back the amount of office work it carries out, having unveiled plans earlier this spring for a 拢2bn sell-off of parts of its office-led assets over the next five years to fund an expansion into residential.

Among the schemes that could start next year are the 拢250m Hill House job, which Skanska won over a year ago, but which 星空传媒 understands has been paused. Red Lion Court, a 拢200m office scheme on Bankside has already been paused.

Meanwhile, Skanska is believed to be one of two firms left in the running for Derwent鈥檚 拢150m redevelopment at 50 Baker Street.

星空传媒 understands the race has narrowed to that firm and Multiplex with a winner expected later this month. Mace has also bid the scheme.

Mace and Multiplex, along with Sir Robert McAlpine, are all chasing the 拢200m Edge Liverpool Street scheme, previously known as Edge Shoreditch, although that race is understood to have narrowed to a fight between Mace and McAlpine.

Meanwhile, all three are believed to be answering client queries on the 拢600m British Library redevelopment ahead of a winner being named in the next few weeks.

Japanese developer Mitsui Fudosan has promised to start work next year on the 拢1.1bn scheme with completion scheduled for 2032.

The Tokyo-based real estate firm has taken full ownership of SMBL, the scheme鈥檚 development partner which had previously been a joint venture between itself and Stanhope, with Stanhope retained as development manager.