WESTERN EUROPE’S TALLEST AND MOST STRIKING RESIDENTIAL TOWER GETS GREEN LIGHT · Providing 861 high quality private and affordable homes in a new landmark development designed by award-winning architects HOK. A separate linked development will provide a further 60 affordable homes in Limehouse.
· The Hertsmere House development includes significant public realm and landscaping improvements alongside shops and cafes which will revitalise West India Quay in Canary Wharf.
· Greenland Group aims to start on both sites later this year and complete the developments by 2020. Members of Tower Hamlets’ Strategic Development Committee (SDC) last night (18 February) voted in favour of approving plans for the redevelopment of Hertsmere House at West India Quay, Canary Wharf.
Greenland Group submitted plans to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to build a 67 storey residential tower featuring 861 new homes in September 2015.
At 240.5m AOD the building will be Western Europe's tallest residential tower. Greenland Group has already built three of the ten tallest buildings in the world since 2005 and this development will be their second investment in the UK following the Ram Brewery scheme in Wandsworth, on which construction started in 2015.
A linked planning application at Dalgleish Street in Limehouse was also voted through by the SDC and will provide a further 60 high quality affordable homes. Overall 921 new homes will now come forward on the two sites.
Setareh Neshati, Senior Planning Manager, Greenland Group said:
“We are delighted that Tower Hamlets have decided to share our ambition to deliver a landmark residential building at West India Quay. This is Greenland Group’s most important project in Europe. As well as delivering 921 new homes for Londoners, including 156 affordable homes, our scheme will revitalise this part of Canary Wharf and create a new prosperous environment that the whole community can enjoy. The carefully designed public realm will provide the most appropriate and balanced setting for the proposed residential building.”
The Hertsmere House site has a previous planning permission from 2009 for a 242m AOD commercial development. In 2014, Greenland Group acquired the site and decided to bring forward a new world class design for a residential building.
The petal-shaped design for the building will be architecturally unique, visually striking and a new addition to the London skyline.
The building will feature communal amenity pavilions for the new residents, connected to the tower by glass winter gardens, landscaped roof terraces, public open spaces and carefully designed external and internal children’s play areas including rooms for music, interactive games and graphics.
As part of the proposal, Greenland Group will deliver 30% affordable housing including affordable homes at Hertsmere House, Dalgleish Street in Limehouse and an additional £19 million contribution to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, ring fenced for affordable housing. Greenland Group will also be making a further £21 million contribution through the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 contributions.
Should the scheme receive all relevant approvals, construction on both sites could start later this year and is expected to take four years, completing in 2020.
