LONDON-Shell International has officially selected the locally based Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar Real Estate Co. as the developer of the oil firm’s planned South Bank office complex, reported to likely cost up to $3 billion. The venture has paid $429 million to secure a 5.3-acre site on a 999-year lease.
Both venture firms contributed 50% of the cost of the land purchase. The total payment is conditional on planning permission being received for the project within three years, according to a Canary Wharf statement.
Shell already has a 27-story office tower on the site called Shell Centre, on Belvidere Road along the south bank of the Thames River. The company has moved its thousands of employees out of the building, and will likely redevelop the tower as a mixed-use office and apartment complex.
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The Canary/Qatari venture beat out competitors Development Securities/Carlyle and Chelsfield/CIT. Canary will serve as construction manager for the project, and will be joint development manager with Qatari.
The exact designs for the new complex haven’t been released, but in the statement, Canary said the development will be mixed-use, comprising office, retail and residential space. Shell has also said that along with retaining Shell Centre, it will also lease 210,000 square feet in one of the new office buildings on the site.
Graham van’t Hoff, Shell’s chairman in the United Kingdom, said in the statement that the move represents considerable reinvestment in the South Bank. “Shell Centre is our long-term home in London, and we’re keen to start working…to develop and deliver a project that will benefit both London and the local community,” Hoff said.
Shell is based in the Netherlands. Qatari is wholly owned by the Qatar Investment Authority to support Qatar’s growing economy and to coordinate the country’s real estate development priorities.
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