Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group are close to booking another tenant at 20 Fenchurch Street, EC3, after entering advanced negotiations with Royal Sun Alliance.
The general insurer is in discussions to take around 70,000 sq ft at the tower and is expected to pay a rent in the region of £62.50.
RSA would be the fourth tenant to sign up at the 650,000 sq ft building, dubbed the Walkie Talkie.
Markel International, Kiln and Ascot Re have all signed or are close to signing and a deal with RSA would mean more than 200,000 sq ft of space had been let, over 30% of the total.
LandSec and Canary Wharf have previously said that they aimed to offload around 150,000 sq ft by the end of the year.
Construction on the project is not scheduled to complete until 2014.
A source close to the project said the talks were a sign that deals were still being done, even if they were taking longer to complete.
A Land Securities spokesman confirmed the parties were in talks but said: “Until the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed, we would not comment.”
RSA occupies multiple City offices including the whole 113,000 sq ft at 1 Leadenhall Street, with a lease expiry in March 2014, and 30,000 sq ft at Plantation Place, both EC3.
A spokesman said: “We are currently in negotiations with 20 Fenchurch Street Limited Partnership to move our London offices to the Walkie Talkie. We will achieve cost efficiencies by consolidating our current London properties into one premises and hope to be able to conclude these discussions in the coming weeks.”
Knight Frank and CBRE act for Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group; AOS Studley acts for RSA.
All parties declined to comment.
jack.sidders@estatesgazette.com
