LONDON | Project Compilation Thread

[jef]

Canary Wharf has released the design of 25 Churchill Place:



and another one of RS (note the middle building is higher in the revised design):

[AJphx]

wow wood wharf looks impressive

[jef]

Delancey's Westminster Place, Waterloo, one of the site shortlisted by News International for their new european HQ.

[Shep]

Your pretty damn informative jef!

Cheers for all the updates and the presentation!

[jef]

The outlook for the London office market has hardly ever been so bleak. In turn this has a major impact on the office development pipeline with some major office schemes about to be delayed or scrapped.

So far this year, Citigroup has shed 400 staff in London, Bank of America has made 650 redundant, Deutsche Bank has shed 120 within the Square Mile, Credit Suisse has cut 150 workers, and UBS and Goldman Sachs have eliminated 1,500 each. And Lehman Brothers, which has its European headquarters at Canary Wharf, has already begun to notify staff that they no longer have a future with the bank.

The Times report that the future will be even worse "Job losses in the City are expected to rise rapidly this year, with no end in sight for the global credit crisis. Duncan McKenzie, the director of economics at the International Financial Services, the London research group, has predicted that the head-count in the City will fall by 10,000 by Christmas as banks, fund managers and broking houses try to adapt to fewer deals and lower trading volumes".

Yesterday Bear Stearns has been forced to deny rumours of liquidity problems. This prompted a sell-off in US and European financial stocks. The stock of Bear Stearns closed down 11%. The question now is whether the compagny will ever occupy its new European HQ in Canary Wharf. It remains to be hoped it will not file for bankruptcy.

[wjfox2004]

Doesn't change the fact that LBT, Pinnacle, Heron, Leadenhall, Riverside South, Beetham, St George's Wharf, Merchant Square, Strata, tons of other midrises... are all pretty much certain to go ahead.

[jef]

Originally Posted by wjfox2004

Doesn't change the fact that LBT, Pinnacle, Heron, Leadenhall, Riverside South, Beetham, St George's Wharf, Merchant Square, Strata, tons of other midrises... are all pretty much certain to go ahead.

I am more concerned about the timing of the development pipeline. For example it is obvious BL is not in a rush to build the Leadenhall Building. Initially demolition was due to be completed by April...

Initially basement works at Riverside South should have started this month as you know...We are a long way off. And they won't be built spec. They will complete below ground works to enable speed of delivery and wait for a prelet.

Same with 25 CP and Arrowhead which were initially due to be built speculatively. It has now emerged they will complete basements and wait for a prelet.

Regarding the Shard and Pinnacle the contracts have not yet been signed to build them. And these arab investors are financiers, not property developers like BL or CW, withlittle or no experience in London.

The two other large-scale developments I was interested in, Wallbrook Place and 20 Fenchurch Street have been delayed or could even been scrapped...

We are going to see a lot of cleared site in London next year ... that's my thinking.

[ismail]

Originally Posted by jef

I am more concerned about the timing of the development pipeline. For example it is obvious BL is not in a rush to build the Leadenhall Building. Initially demolition was due to be completed by April...

Initially basement works at Riverside South should have started this month as you know...We are a long way off. And they won't be built spec. They will complete below ground works to enable speed of delivery and wait for a prelet.

Same with 25 CP and Arrowhead which were initially due to be built speculatively. It has now emerged they will complete basements and wait for a prelet.

Regarding the Shard and Pinnacle the contracts have not yet been signed to build them. And these arab investors are financiers, not property developers like BL or CW, withlittle or no experience in London.

The two other large-scale developments I was interested in, Wallbrook Place and 20 Fenchurch Street have been delayed or could even been scrapped...

We are going to see a lot of cleared site in London next year ... that's my thinking.

The positive thinking Jef we miss on Skyscrapercity...!!!!!

On the news front ...Sadly the Beetham Tower in London has been called in for a PI

[jef]

...

[jef]

Ballymore has communicated they put on hold Phase 2 of its development at Crossharbour/Baltimore Wharf

Construction on the residential tower and the office/hotel elements was initially due to start in early 2008.

This is the third consecutive setback in the Docklands, with both 25 Churchill Place, Arrowhead and now Baltimore Wharf put on hold due to the lack of office demand and massive office surplus put back on the market by large investment banks.

[Newcastle Kid]

Originally Posted by jef

Ballymore has communicated they put on hold Phase 2 of its development at Crossharbour/Baltimore Wharf

Construction on the residential tower and the office/hotel elements was initially due to start in early 2008.

This is the third consecutive setback in the Docklands, with both 25 Churchill Place, Arrowhead and now Baltimore Wharf put on hold due to the lack of office demand and massive office surplus put back on the market by large investment banks.

After seeing WHY this was put on hold, I am very happy. New, bigger, better design:

Originally Posted by london lad

[jef]

... and a fourth setback: Bear Stearns, one of the largest US Investment Bank, has just confirmed it needs new massive funding to avoid bankrupcty. JP Morgan and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have provided the investment bank with emergency short term funding. Alan Schwartz, the bank’s president and chief executive, said in a short statement today: "The company can make no assurance that any strategic alternatives" to fund itself in the long term "will be successfully completed


The future of iBear Stearsn new European HQ under construction in Canary Wharf is ... extremely bleak. We will know within the next 28 days whether this building will eventually stand empty or no.

[Newcastle Kid]

Originally Posted by jef

The future of iBear Stearsn new European HQ under construction in Canary Wharf is ... extremely bleak. We will know within the next 28 days whether this building will eventually stand empty or no.

It has now been confirmed that JPMorgan will take the building on, they are tied into the lease. So no bother for Canary Wharf

Story over at SSC.

[jef]

Originally Posted by Newcastle Kid

It has now been confirmed that JPMorgan will take the building on, they are tied into the lease. So no bother for Canary Wharf

Story over at SSC.

They have yet to decide - story in the Financial Times. Apparently 500 jobs will be cut.

Overall that would mean 1500 job losses at Bear Stearns / CW alone.

[jef]

Times:
Bear Stearns: Fear now stalking the corridors of Canary Wharf headquarters
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3556387.ece
A further 1,370 jobs to be cut in Canary Wharf would Bear Stearns collapse.

From its headquarters at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, it had planned to expand its operations in London, where it lags most of its competitors, and the workforce was set to double to more than 2,500 in the next few years. Yesterday, however, those proposals hung in the balance. It has also agreed to move to 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf in mid-2009 but now that too is uncertain.

[jef]

Bear Stearns, the fifth largest US bank, is over. JP Morgan has agreed to buy the company under Fed Pressure .... for a symbobic 1£ per share. BS shares peaked at 169$ last year and closed down at 30$ on Friday after its CEO warned of imminent collapse. JP Morgan announced many of its 14,000 employees will be laid off.

Bear Stearns was due to move into its new European Headquarters that is under construction at 5 Churchill Place.

[wjfox2004]

Today's Evening Standard has Boris Johnson on 49% versus Ken Livingstone on 37% of 1st preferences, with the mayoral election just over a month away. Kiss goodbye to virtually every skyscraper that was planned for the next property cycle - mark my words, NONE of them will be built if Johnson gets into power, except maybe a couple in the Docklands.

[NBTD]

^^ If they have planning permission i don't think there is much he can do. Funding/Finding Tennants may be an issue that would stop anything getting built, but Borris can't actually take back permission once its been given (not only would it require a change in planning law, but i'm sure it would also cost millions to compensate the developers - Londoners wont like that).

But he would certainly widen the viewing corridors and make it much harder for any future proposals to get through....we'll be seeing a hell of a lot more fat, stubbie monsters if Borris gets in.

[Minato Ku]

No way, I hope that Boris Johnson will never be the mayor of London.

[jef]

I am not concerned about this because we face a more important problem: The US economy is in recession - the worst since WW2 according to Alan Greesnpan - and it may well take years for the banking and property sector, especially in NYC and London, to recover. In other words we won't see much activity anyway.

The outlook for the skyscrapers community in London is abyssal, really. Even at British Land and Canary Wharf people are getting extremely nervous with shares down 60% in a year and more to follow.