Argent to restart £250m King’s Cross scheme

Argent is looking to restart work on the whole of the £250m office complex at the heart of its King’s Cross development, in a further sign of renewed confidence in the London office market.

The complex, known as the B-Zone, includes designs for buildings by architects including David Chipperfield, Porphyrios and Allies and Morrison.

Construction work has started on two of the buildings that will eventually be occupied by Camden council and BNP Paribas Bank respectively.

Argent has now decided to press on with preparing construction for the remaining un-let offices. The B-Zone is opposite the planned new King’s Cross ticket hall, between that and the St Pancras Eurostar station.

David Partridge, Argent’s joint chief executive overseeing work on King’s Cross, said the developer was dusting off plans to build the basement and substructure works for the entire set of buildings.

He said: “Hopefully with all of the preliminary works for the B-Zone in place we’ll be in a much better position to attract funding and tenants for the remaining buildings.
“We are currently preparing the final designs and costings for the work on the substructure.”

Partridge wouldn’t be drawn on whether Argent would build the whole block of offices on spec, but said the firm was aiming for a completion date of 2013-4 for all of them.

Argent decided to slow the development at the onset of the credit crunch, but Partridge said there was definitely “renewed vigour” on the scheme.

The three un-let blocks are 158,000ft², 123,000ft² and 56,000ft² respectively, and received planning permission back in April last year.