The Contester Blog

With a new building project coming up in the South Bank of Thames, London’s skyline is all set to be significantly changed by 2013. The project, christened the Shard, has been cleared by major sponsors, the State of Qatar, who will own a massive 80% stake in the completed building.

Speaking for Qatar Central Bank, its Governor passed approval for the huge project, which will require a total funding of £2b. The Shard will have 600,000 square feet of space when completed, with shared offices and residences in a multi-use environment. Restaurants, shops and a hotel complete the list of facilities that will be available in the building. Standing at a height of 310m with 80 floors, the Shard will be the tallest building in all of Europe.

The Government of Qatar is demonstrating its faith in the UK real estate market with such massive investments here. Much foreign interest is seen in investments here as predictions abound for a boom in real estate markets in Britain.

Apart from the 80% share of Qatar in the project, the developers will hold the balance stake in this project, which has been designed by Renzo Piano Irvine Seller. The Director of Sellar Property Group, Barry Ostle, predicted that this would be a highly tenanted building right from day one, as the economy would have recovered by the time of the building’s completion in 2013.

Ostle also stated that the nature of the project is such that pre-letting is not required urgently. In fact, he did not comment on expected rents here. However, even before construction commenced, Shangri-La hotels and the Transport for London booked space in the would-be premises for their operations.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 7:43 am and is filed under Business, Public Relations, Real Estate Profits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.