The Shard, the Pinnacle and other London skyscrapers may never be “a reality”, a BBC investigation into London’s skyscrapers has found.
The Shard, UK’s tallest skyscraper due to open in 2013, does not “have a single financial tenant in place.”
Six other ambitious tower projects have either come to a grinding halt or been cancelled, according to the investigation which aired today.
The BBC reported that construction of 100 Bishopsgate is on hold because the builders haven’t been able to snap up advance tenants.
The Pinnacle aka the Helter Skelter in the City, is expected to be the second tallest skyscraper in the UK but it isn’t close to completion, despite construction beginning in 2009.
Plans for making a “futuristic office block” called One Trinity have also been quashed and the existing building will now become a hotel.
Similarly, the Can of Ham, on St Mary’s Axe, was approved in 2008 but the building on its planned site has not even been demolished yet, the BBC said.
Simon Rawlinson, a property development consultant at EC Harris, told the BBC:
“At the moment if you don’t have a tenant you don’t have a project, so you don’t bother.
“Projects have been cancelled or delayed in the past 12 months because they thought they had a pre-let and that fell away. Those projects had to be mothballed.
“Getting the tenant is absolutely critical.”
“Getting money to develop now is harder than it has been in 20 years,” he added.
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