Tenders out for £250m Landsec office job this autumn

Three firms are set to receive tender documents in October for the chance to work up bids for a new office scheme being developed by Landsec in the City of London.

Mace, Multiplex and Skanska are all in the running for the job called Hill House, a 1970s block on the corner of Shoe Lane and Little New Street in the New Street Square area of the Square Mile. Tenders are due back early next year.

Current tenants include the Shoe Lane library with the current eight-storey scheme having been designed by Ronald Fielding Partnership and opened in 1979.

The new build job, which is expected to cost at least £250m, has been on firms’ radars for several months now although it is not expected to start until 2026 at the earliest.

Described by architectural historians as “an office block with windows deeply set into a moulded concrete frame, and a pronounced stair-tower” the building is 170,000 sq ft with Landsec saying in its 2022 annual report that an overhaul will create a “future redevelopment opportunity and a significant value uplift across the overall New Street Square estate”.

In its 2023 report, the developer said the job, which has not been submitted for planning, is at the design stage with the amount of space being planned at the new scheme doubling to 350,000 sq ft.

Landsec’s current jobs in London include the £400m Timber Square project in Southwark, designed by Bennetts Associates, which will be built by Mace after the firm replaced Laing O’Rourke earlier this year.

This job, worth more than £200m, is now being let as a construction management deal after the earlier scheme, which saw O’Rourke originally beat Mace, was tendered as a design and build contract.