LREF 2017: Canary Wharf Group is targeting “cool” occupiers over “corporate” ones for its 2m sq ft of offices in the New District.
“Corporate follows cool,” Canary Wharf Group leasing associate Tarun Mathur told an audience at LREF. Highlighting the change in the area’s make-up, he said the majority of its workforce are now millennials.
The area is benefiting from its proximity to Tower Hamlets, which is the fastest-growing London borough by population and salary, he adds.
Cushman & Wakefield partner James Heyworth-Dunne said Canary Wharf would benefit from the rise of more footloose occupiers who are less concerned about location than access to talent and amenity provision for staff.
In 2016, just 6% of take up was from financial services firms, compared to 35% from technology and media companies, he said.
The past year has seen a softening of rents in the West End and stability if not growth in the east and South East markets including Canary Wharf. That migration of tenants from West to East is expected to accelerate following the arrival of the Elizabeth Line when the 60-minute catchment area to reach Canary Wharf will increase by 1.37m people.
Canary Wharf Group wants to make its New District into a place where people can “work, live and enjoy the environment”. Swiss architect Herzog & de Meuron has designed the first residential tower – a 57-storey cylindrical tower called One Park Drive, that will comprise 468 flats ranging in size from studios to large three-bedroom family homes.
Why did the architect behind Tate Modern choose the area for its first UK residential scheme? “I think the area chose us in the sense that the opportunity, when it came to us to look at this residential project, was particularly interesting because of the site and its relationship to the water and the relatively new direction in general,” says Herzog & de Meuron project director John O’Mara.
“I think it’s got an opportunity to become a really integral part of London, in terms of the destination part of London. I think Wood Wharf [now rebranded as the New District] plays to that quite strongly as a living, breathing part of the city of which it is already. This just expands that aspect of Canary Wharf.”
■ Market intelligence: Canary Wharf was held in association with Cushman & Wakefield.
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