City OK’s Squire & Partners’ £200m Gresham Street office makeover

Squire & Partners’ scheme to bring a 20-year-old building in the City of London up to date and described as one of the largest building reuse projects in the Square Mile has been given the green light.

The plans for 65 Gresham Street were lodged with City planners in autumn 2022 and will see the existing eight-storey block extended to 12 storeys with the original building given a wholesale makeover.

The chairman of the City’s planning committee, Shravan Joshi, said: “The 65 Gresham Street proposals represent an exemplary retrofit scheme that will provide benefits for everyone. Future office tenants and their employees will enjoy a well-connected, high-quality office space, whilst local resident and visitor journeys through the Square Mile will be enhanced by the public realm improvements and new retail.”

The building was designed by Sheppard Robson and completed in 2001 but the new plans involving expanding it from 24,995 sq m to 37,767 sq m. It is targeting a 66% whole life carbon reduction and operational carbon 12% lower than 2022 GLA criteria while the scheme’s project team want it to become an “exemplar all electric building in the heart of the City”.

In a design and access statement put together by Squire & Partners for client JP Morgan Asset Management the current building is described as “poorly configured in places and overall looks dated”.

It adds “the office floors are nearing the end of their design life and do not meet the expectations of a future office workspace” while the energy performance of the building is described as “poor and services installations are nearing the end of their operational lifespan”.

The new proposals include adding balconies, upper level amenity space and outdoor workspace to every floor while the building’s existing entrances on Gresham Street and 10 Aldermanbury will be redesigned to create double heigh volumes. There will also be a dedicated entrance for cyclists.

Building understands the job has a construction value of around £200m – although no shortlisted contractors have been drawn up yet given the last of the building’s seven major tenants is not expected to move out until June 2025.

Others working on the deal include cost consultant Turner & Townsend Alinea, project manager Opera, structural engineer Buro Happold, services engineer Atelier 10 and facade engineer and facade engineer Murphy Facade Studio.