A planning application is being drawn up for a 54-storey tower in the City of London to replace a 1970s-built block that is home to the HQ of Multiplex Europe.<\/p>\n
The City of London Corporation this month received preliminary notification of the proposal, which would see a new 240 metre-high (AOD) skyscraper built at 99 Bishopsgate, 200 metres south of Liverpool Street Station.<\/p>\n
Multiplex Europe<\/a> currently occupies the second floor of the existing 28-storey building after it moved from Broadgate in 2018.<\/p>\n Documents submitted to the corporation said<\/span>: \u201cThe design of the proposed development is ongoing at the time of preparing this [report], however, the proposed development is anticipated to comprise partial demolition of the existing building on site to facilitate the construction of a new, mixed-use, tall building with a separate pavilion building providing publicly accessible amenity and\/or cultural space.<\/p>\n \u201cElements of the existing building will be retained where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The document said that the new tower would include up to 97,000 square metres of office floorspace and around 2,000 square metres of publicly accessible retail\/food and beverage space.<\/p>\n The documents form a request to the City of London Corporation for an environmental impact scoping opinion on the scheme, prior to the submission of a detailed planning application.<\/p>\n The main report was prepared by Trium Environmental Consulting on behalf of 99 Bishopsgate S.A.R.L, a Luxembourg-registered entity registered with Companies House in February.<\/p>\n Companies House documents list the beneficial owners of the company as Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Victor Dahdaleh and the Chinese government\u2019s finance ministry.<\/p>\n News of the scheme, which would become one of the tallest in the City of London, has already provoked concern from aviation bodies.<\/p>\n National air traffic control body NATS told planners in a submission that the proposed height of the block has \u201csignificant potential for an impact on its operations\u201d, specifically on a radar it operates at Heathrow Airport.<\/p>\n It said: \u201cAccordingly, NATS anticipates the top half of the building to be sufficiently illuminated by the radar to reflect radar signals and cause false aircraft targets on air traffic controllers\u2019 displays. This has an unacceptable impact on ATC [air traffic control] workload.\u201d<\/p>\n London City Airport also told planners that the scheme could conflict with its \u201csafeguarding criteria\u201d.<\/p>\n The existing building at 99 Bishopsgate was designed by architect Richard Seifert, completed in 1976, and then occupied by HSBC before its move to Canary Wharf.<\/p>\n In 1993 the building was damaged by a truck bomb detonated by the Provisional IRA outside the building, which led to a substantial refurbishment that involved a new facade, the addition of two additional floors and bigger floorplates.<\/p>\n In 2012, 13,000 square metres of vacant office space in the tower received a new category A fit-out and in 2013, a new entrance facade and reception were completed.<\/p>\n 99 Bishopsgate sits next door to 55 Bishopsgate, which is also set to be redeveloped following July\u2019s granting of planning permission for a 63-storey, 284 metre-tall (AOD) tower<\/a>, set to become the third-tallest tower in the Square Mile.<\/p>\n Multiplex was the main contractor for the 295 metre-tall (AOD) tower at 22 Bishopsgate, completed in 2020. It is the tallest building in the City of London and the second-highest in the UK after The Shard.<\/p>\n