British Land costs amount to £159m on Cheesegrater

British Land revealed today that its completion costs on the Cheesegrater skyscraper amount to £159m.

Last month the developer and joint venture partner Oxford Properties confirmed Laing O’Rourke as the winning bidder for the Leadenhall development.

Figures outlined in its first quarter results, place the current value of the Leadenhall site at £55m with notional interest being £26m.

The developer said the construction contract had been “agreed on favourable terms”.

British Land also said it committed £1.9bn to property investment in the last 18 months with nearly 90% being based in Central London.

The property giant recently won planning permission for a £340m office block development at 5 Broadgate for bank UBS.

British Land chief executive Chris Grigg said: “Our focus on high quality retail and London offices continues to drive strong valuation and improvement in rental values.

“The early decisions we made in undertaking our £1.1bn development programme are having a real impact, accounting for nearly a quarter of our valuation improvement, and the highly selective acquisitions made since the beginning of the quarter will add both incremental income and value for our shareholders.”