Race for £500m London office jobs heading into final push

The race to land a brace of office deals in London worth £500m in total is reaching the endgame with bids for one due in this week and interviews for the other wrapping up next.

Interviews for a £250m deal to revamp the current offices of Deutsche Bank at 75 London Wall are due to finish by the middle of the month while tenders for a £250m scheme to give a 1960s government building in Victoria a makeover go back in the next few days.

Teams from Mace, Multiplex and Lendlease are all in the final furlong for the 75 London Wall job, also known as Winchester House, which is being run by development manager Castleforge.

Winchester House was sold by China Investment Corporation last year for £257m to a joint venture of Castleforge and Malaysian construction and property company Gamuda Group.

Deutsche Bank has begun moving staff out of the building to new offices at 21 Moorfields, built by Sir Robert McAlpine and handed over 18 months late, with the firm now taking possession of four floors of the 17-storey block which is still being fitted out by ISG.

The building will become the new headquarters of the bank with Building understanding that all staff could be in as soon as the summer after previous estimates had been for the end of the year.

Bids for 75 London Wall went in at the end of January with all three due to find out next month who has won the work.

Castleforge and Gamuda have promised a “comprehensive upgrade and refurbishment” for the building which was designed in the early 1990s by Swanke Hayden Connell. This design, which replaced a 1960s building, has three trading floors able to accommodate 650 traders per floor.

The JV said it is looking at a retrofit-first approach for work on the 320,000 sq ft building which will also include roof terraces as well as improved public realm.

The project team includes project manager Opera, architect Orms and QS Gardiner & Theobald.

Meanwhile, Mace, Multiplex and Lendlease are finalising bids to redevelop a government building in London’s Victoria.

Built in 1960, 1 Victoria Street was home to the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy but civil servants have moved out with Keltbray beginning soft-strip work last month.

Mitsubishi Estate London bought the site a decade ago and has now asked Stanhope to give the building a makeover and turn it into a mixed-use development with office accommodation and retail running along Victoria Street.

Under the plans drawn up by architect AHMM, over 60% of the building’s structure by volume will be retained while a new façade will also be included.

An island site, the block is bordered by Victoria Street, Abbey Orchard Street and Great Smith Street.

Building understands the job is being let as a construction management contract and is worth around £250m with a winner also due next month.

The same three contractors are also bidding a mixed-use scheme for the Crown Estate in the West End. The second phase of a scheme which first completed in 2016 has again been designed by Make and will include offices and a theatre. A winner for the £180m job at St James’s Market had been due this spring but a decision has been pushed back to the summer.