Thursday 7 Jan 2010
CANNON PLACE DEVELOPMENT IGNITES REDEVELOPMENT AT STATION
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail, the owner and operator of Britain’s railway infrastructure and Hines, the international property developer today release new images of their Cannon Place development at London’s Cannon Street station.
During challenging times for the commercial property sector Cannon Place bucks the trend and will be one of only two new office developments to open in the City of London in 2011.
Work continues apace to construct an eight-storey, 400,000 sq ft office building above a new railway concourse and tube station entrance. The development will transform the station. It will be brighter, easier to use and more spacious and open than the old one, while the building above is architecturally striking, bringing a presence to the site that heralds its significance as a centre for commerce.
Improvement to the station is sorely needed – it is amongst the top ten busiest in the country, serving 95,000 City workers each day. The previous 12-storey tower had outgrown its usefulness and Network Rail and Hines have used the opportunity to develop a cutting-edge new office complex which leverages private sector capital to fund a station revamp.
Patrick Butcher, group finance director, Network Rail said: “Millions of people use our stations every week so they are perfect for offices, homes and retail space. Our partnership with Hines illustrates how the value of our estate has remained resilient despite the economic difficulties of the last couple of years.
“The result of this partnership will be a great new station for passengers and a major new office development in the heart of the City of London in 2011.”
Mark Swetman, project director, Hines said: “The recession won’t stop Cannon Place becoming a landmark once again. Its design will make it one of the best new office spaces in the City and its location puts it at the heart of the action. This development is a great opportunity to add value to the City.”
Notes to editors
Network Rail is looking to market the unique potential of its massive property portfolio across the UK, which includes some 2,500 stations that act as the gateway to all our major towns and cities. These have the benefit of being not only near the nation’s best transport hubs, but actually being on them.
Masterplans for significant developments at both Euston and Victoria are underway, while opportunities away from London are in progress. A predicted return to growth for British employment in 2011 means that Network Rail are courting developers like Hines now, to take advantage of opportunities in the near future.
Network Rail is looking to establish other development partnerships such as the one with Hines, whilst also promoting single site and multi-site joint ventures such as the Solum Regeneration Ltd vehicle that we put in place with Kier Property in 2008.
Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide. The firm’s historical and current portfolio of projects represents more than 449 million sq ft of office, residential, mixed-use, industrial, hotel, medical and sports facilities, as well as large, master-planned communities and land developments. Hines has offices in more than 100 cities in 17 countries and controls assets valued at approximately $22.9 billion. The company was founded by Gerald D. Hines in the US in 1958. Visit www.hines.com for more information.
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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
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