Satellite communications company Inmarsat have shelved their plans for a £70m headquarters behind Euston Station, NW1, and will buy the freehold of 99 City Road, EC1 (below) — Helical Bar’s 165,000-sq ft development bought by British Petroleum in 1988 for £60m and never occupied. Observers now value the scheme at no more than £50m.
Last June, BRPB, Inmarsat and the Ove Arup Partnership unveiled plans for 500,000 sq ft of offices on the Euston site bounded by Granby Terrace and Park Village East, now occupied by 125,000 sq ft of carriage-servicing sheds. But, in an off-market deal, Inmarsat will instead buy and occupy the building which BP originally planned to become BP Oil’s new headquarters.
Inmarsat are currently based in the 300,000-sq ft Euston Square complex. In June 1989 Norwich Union and ICI sold the scheme’s 125-year headleasehold to Stanhope Kajima for about £115m.
Agents Phillip Sinclair Knighton are advising BP on the sale of 99 City Road.
