Group looking to overhaul Docklands estate in wake of changing working practices
Four firms are understood to have made it onto a cost management framework put together by Canary Wharf Group as part of its plan to overhaul its estate.
The group has drawn up several frameworks of firms across a range of disciplines with details of the first now emerging.
Building understands that T&T Alinea, Mace, Atkins and Exigere have made the cost consultants framework, having been whittled down from an initial shortlist of eight.
Other frameworks that have been created by Canary Wharf, which declined to comment, cover project management and M&E.
Canary Wharf, which is co-owned by the Qatar Investment Authority and Multiplex owner Brookfield, is looking at moving away from a focus on offices at the Docklands estate and broadening the mix of tenants in the wake of post-pandemic working practices and higher borrowing costs.
Yesterday, former Legal & General chief executive Sir Nigel Wilson became Canary Wharf’s new non-executive chairman replacing company veteran Sir Goerge Iacobescu.
Wilson said: “Canary Wharf is becoming a city within a city with approximately 20 million square feet of vibrant space across offices, housing, retail and leisure.”
But some long-standing financial tenants such as HSBC have decided to leave the estate for smaller space in the City while others are cutting back on the amount of room they take up.
Among the initiatives being looked at to increase diversity of tenants are moves into life sciences with specialist developer Kadans building a 17-storey tower designed by KPF there, while Canary Wharf is also looking at increasing the amount of retail, leisure and hotel space it has at the site.
Last month Building revealed that KPF had won an architectural competition to reimagine the HSBC tower in Canary Wharf which the banking giant is planning to move out of by 2027.
Alternatives to office space at the tower are believed to include apartments and a hotel.
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