Contractors eye next major scheme due for London’s Victoria Street

Contractors are eyeing up the next major building scheme to get out of the ground on London’s Victoria Street with plans drawn up to redevelop two buildings known as 10-20 Victoria Street.

Mace is already on the site opposite at 1 Victoria Street with an office scheme to redevelop a former government building for Mitsubishi Estate and Stanhope while Skanska is also on site with a mixed-use scheme to replace a former House of Fraser store at 105 Victoria Street for Bentall Green Oak, at the other end of the road.

Now plans have been drawn up by Piercy & Co to redevelop two buildings on the same street for Meadows Partners, a real estate investment manager based in London and New York and which was set up in 2009.

Plans for the job were sent in to Westminster council towards the end of last year and cover 10-18 Victoria Street and a second building at 20 Victoria Street.

The building at 10-18 Victoria Street was rebuilt in 1956 after suffering extensive war damage while 20 Victoria Street was rebuilt in 1974.

Both buildings were designed by Sir John Burnet Tait & Partners, with the former serving as the headquarters for US firm Monsanto Chemicals which was bought by German firm Bayer eight years ago.

But Meadows said the pair are not up to scratch and added: “10-20 Victoria Street are tired buildings that are sorely in need of redevelopment. The buildings are inefficient and inappropriate for current and future office needs.”

Its proposal involves knocking down the existing buildings, retaining the basement and building a stepped 13-storey block on top which will nearly double existing office space to just over 24,000sq m while adding 750sq m of restaurant and retail space.

Building understands that Mace and Bovis are both looking at the job, worth upwards of £150m, while Sir Robert McAlpine is also understood to be interested. But other would-be builders, Multiplex and McLaren, are not in the mix.

In a public consultation last year, Medows said work could begin this year with completion set for 2029.

Others working on the scheme include development manager Oxygen, cost consultant Quantem, structures specialist Heyne Tillett Steel, M&E consultant Hoare Lea and planning consultant Montague Evans. Opera is project manager.

In a comment last month, the government’s heritage adviser Historic England said it raised “no in-principle issue with its proposed demolition on heritage grounds” – although the Westminster Society has objected because it is “concerned that the proposed building is not yet of sufficient quality to warrant the demolition of this significant 1950s building”.