Pinnacle deal: New owners target construction start this year

The new owners of the Pinnacle tower scheme in London’s Square Mile are targeting starting construction this year, with a completion date of the end of 2018.

Building has learned fund manager Axa and developer Lipton Rogers – which exchanged contracts to take over the long-stalled site from its former Saudi Arabian owners yesterday afternoon – are in negotiations with City of London planners and intend to submit a radically redesigned scheme for planning in time to start on site this year.

A source close to the scheme described the new designs as “simple, a more rational form and not ostentatious like the Pinnacle was”.

The source said the new tower will be shorter than the previous 288m-tall Pinnacle, but will cram on “near” to two million sq ft of floor space, a quarter up on the original 1.6 million sq ft Pinnacle planning consent.

Designs for the scheme leaked on Skyscrapercity yesterday were working models for the new design and not final designs, the source said, adding: “It’s a slicker building than has been seen.”

The scheme has dropped the Pinnacle name for the more prosaic ‘22 Bishopsgate’.

In a statement this morning Axa Real Estate confirmed the acquisition of the site with development partner Lipton Rogers and the planned construction timetable, adding it will incorporate offices, retail, restaraunts, bars and a public viewing gallery at the top of the building.

Anne Kavanagh, global head of asset management and transactions at Axa Real Estate, said: “The acquisition of 22 Bishopsgate represents a significant opportunity to purchase a prime office development site at one of the most desirable office locations in the City of London.”

Sir Stuart Lipton said Lipton Rogers had been working with PLP Architects and WSP on the replacement designs for over three years. He added: “We have developed an innovative design for an exceptional office tower with art and character, shaped to respect views of the City and designed to be […] a new vertical City campus reflecting the City’s ever changing consumer base.”

Lipton’s design team includes architect Karen Cook at PLP, who designed the original Pinnacle and its distinctive helter skelter shape when she was at KPF before leaving to help set up PLP in 2009.

Cook said: “We will work with Lipton Rogers Developments and AXA Real Estate to design what will become an exemplary building, setting new standards, for the world class workforce that is London.”

WSP said it will provide a raft of consultancy services on the project, including structural, building services and fire engineering; acoustics, transport and logistics, waste, façade access, energy & sustainability and security services.

Kamran Moazami, WSP project director, said: “We’re proud to be working on this project using our combined UK and global expertise on tall building design. It will be the next great gift for London, and is a once in a lifetime project to be involved in.”

The Pinnacle and its helter-skelter shape were first conceived 14 years ago (see box below), but it proved too costly to build and contractor Brookfield Multiplex abandoned work after just nine storeys of concrete core were constructed in January 2012, earning the scheme the nickname ‘the stump’.

Commenting on the old Pinnacle design, the source said: “The old one was a marked building. It was an iconic building, that was why it fell foul due to the cost.”

Lipton Rogers was founded by veteran developer Sir Stuart Lipton and former Stanhope director Peter Rogers in 2013 to focus on developing cost-efficient office buildings.

Building first revealed last November that Lipton Rogers was the developer involved in the exclusive talks to buy the development with Axa. Building first linked Lipton Rogers to the Pinnacle scheme in February 2013.

Lipton Rogers’ project design team also includes cost consultant Alinea, landscape consultant West 8 and lift consultant Vertical Transportation Studio.

The City of London has been expecting a fresh planning application with an entirely new design for the mothballed site since at least last autumn.

Property agent CBRE was drafted in by majority owners Sedco and sharia-compliant fund Pramerica in 2013 to explore options for reviving the scheme and this process has now completed.