Legal & General Property, on behalf of its Life Fund, has secured planning consent for its West End office and residential redevelopments of 7-10 Hanover Square and 103-109 Wardour Street.
7-10 Hanover Square is located in what is expected to become one of Mayfair’s most sought after squares, following the completion of Crossrail. The redevelopment of 7-10 Hanover Square will comprise a 56,000 sq ft high quality office-based scheme, arranged over two basements, ground and seven upper floors. The office element will provide typical floors of 8,200 sq ft, whilst there will also be two retail/restaurant units on the ground floor, totalling 9,300 sq ft and fronting Hanover Square. Additionally, to the rear of the property, on Princes Street, there is a separate 6,500 sq ft residential building which provides five dual aspect, two-bedroom residential units and a three-bed duplex penthouse unit, as well as parking.
Work is due to start on site in August 2014, with completion targeted for March 2017. MAKE Architects is behind the designs of the building, which uses Portland stone with punched windows. The Portland stone façade also incorporates artwork by Catherine Bertola.
103-109 Wardour Street is situated in the heart of Soho, on the west side of Wardour Street, which runs from Leicester Square to Oxford Street. Plans have been approved for the Sheppard Robson designed residential conversion of the upper floors of this office based building. The project will provide 15 high class residential units, totalling 16,000 sq ft, including two duplex penthouse apartments with seventh floor terraces. It will also involve the alteration of the existing core, a replacement of the rear façade, and conversion and extension of seventh floor office accommodation into high spec residential.
The building underwent redevelopment in 1996, retaining its Portland stone Victorian façade. The conversion and extension of the upper sections of the property form part of the Hanover Square planning application, meeting the borough of Westminster's residential policies.
Simon Wilkes, head of business space development at Legal & General Property, says: “With a shortage of high quality West End office space, both in terms of current supply and that forecast to come to the market, we believe 7-10 Hanover Square has the potential to take advantage of strong occupier demand when it is delivered to the market 2017. Additionally, with a Crossrail station due to be positioned directly opposite the scheme, we feel sure that Hanover Square will take its place as one of the premium business addresses in London and benefit greatly from this and the other regeneration projects that support the area.”
Jones Lang LaSalle has been appointed as development and letting agent on 7-10 Hanover Square and CBRE on Wardour Street. Mace is the project manager, WSP Group the engineer, EC Harris is the cost consultant and Gerald Eve acted as planning consultant on both projects.