UK listed property firm Helical has exchanged a development agreement with Transport for London (TfL) with respect to the Over Station Development at the Farringdon East Crossrail Station which will lead to the creation of an office-led scheme with a gross development value of over £120 mln (€137 mln).
TfL will grant a new 150-year lease on handover of the site which is due in April 2018. Construction will begin shortly thereafter.
The site has planning permission for a six-storey office building of 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2), incorporating a retail/restaurant unit above the Farringdon East Crossrail Station.
Completion of the scheme is expected in October 2019.
Farringdon East Crossrail Station is due to be operational in December 2018 and will make Farringdon one of the biggest transport interchanges in Britain with 140 trains per hour. Farringdon will be the only station from which passengers will be able to access all three rail networks – Crossrail, Thameslink and the London Underground – and is expected to receive 27 million passengers a year.
Matthew Bonning-Snook, property director at Helical, commented: 'We are a great believer in the potential of the area given the significant impact of Crossrail and due to the wealth of cultural and public realm improvements that are planned and underway locally. Our adjacent office scheme overlooking Charterhouse Square, which is fully let, together with our Barts Square project which delivers a new urban quarter to the City and Smithfield, further highlights this belief.'
JLL and Pilcher Hershman acted on behalf of Helical and TfL was advised by Deloitte.
