Northwood Investors’ plans to refurbish and extend First Chicago House in Covent Garden, WC2, have been recommended for approval.
Designed by architect Gensler, the proposals will increase the office space by 38,459 sq ft and create 47,275 sq ft of retail, leisure and restaurant space on the ground floor.
Northwood scrapped previous plans for a redevelopment of the building at 90 Long Acre, which included 178,853 sq ft of office space and 119 residential flats.
Gerald Eve, which submitted the new application on behalf of Northwood, said the redevelopment scheme was “no longer a viable proposition”.
Westminster City Council’s planning officers said in their report to the council’s planning committee that the proposals would affect several heritage assets and views from surrounding conservation areas, but the scheme did present the opportunity to activate the street frontages around it and the refurbishment rather than demolition of the existing building aligned with the council’s sustainability agenda.
The officer concluded the benefits outweighed the harm that could be caused.
Northwood acquired the property, which was designed by R Seifert & Partners and occupies a 1.4-acre plot, in 2013 for £165m from The Witkoff Group.
The building is fully occupied by a variety of tenants, including Toscafund Asset Management, Regus and the AA, but vacant possession is achieveable by 31 December this year.
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