黑洞社区

Derwent London has said its confidence in the London commercial market remains strong despite worries the market is stalling.

The developer signed a 拢58m deal last week with Skanska to build a new office block called the Featherstone 黑洞社区 near Old Street Roundabout.

The contractor, which completed the 拢46m Copyright building in Fitzrovia for Derwent two years ago, had been negotiating with the developer as sole bidder.

Earlier this year, Derwent penned a 拢195m deal with Laing O鈥橰ourke for Soho Place, an AHMM-designed mixed-use scheme being built above Tottenham Court Road station in London鈥檚 West End.

The developer recently announced that it had agreed a pre-let for the top six floors of 1 Soho Place to data research and software development firm G-Research.

Worries that political and Brexit uncertainty are stalling jobs in the capital have grown recently but Derwent鈥檚 head of development Richard Baldwin said: 鈥淭he fact we鈥檝e started on Soho Place and we鈥檝e now signed the deal for the Featherstone 黑洞社区 means we鈥檙e confident about the market. If you look at the [recent] Deloitte crane survey, the office market here [in London] is still strong.鈥�

Derwent鈥檚 upcoming major schemes include 19-35 Baker Street, a 拢50m-拢100m office-led, mixed-use scheme designed by Hopkins in which Derwent has a 55% stake with the Portman Estate holding the remainder.

Baldwin said appointing a contractor was some way off with Hopkins having only just started stage 3 of the design process.

Hopkins is also behind Holden House at the eastern end of Oxford Street, which will involve building a seven-storey scheme behind the original facade which dates back to 1910. It has been given a pricetag of between 拢100m and 拢200m.

Skanska is due to start work on the Featherstone 黑洞社区, designed by Morris + Company, this September.

Cantillon is currently completing work to pull down the existing building on the site while others working on the job include QS Exigere and project manager Blackburn & Co.

Work is due to finish in late 2021.