Japanese Investor Obayashi Corporation and developer Sellar’s plans to build a 37-storey office tower are set to be approved by the City of London Corporation’s planning committee on Friday.
The proposals would see the existing nine-storey building at 60 Gracechurch Street, EC3, replaced with a 37-storey building, creating 561,112 sq ft of office space.
It would also provide 2,013 sq ft of shops, 6,588 of public realm and 893 sq ft of publicly accessible learning space.
Objections to the scheme have been received from Historic England, Historic Royal Palaces and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets relating to the potential impact on local heritage.
When recommending the project for approval, planning officers noted these objections, but said: “Virtually no major development proposal is in complete compliance with all policies and in arriving at a decision it is necessary to assess all the policies and proposals in the plan and to come to a view as to whether in the light of the whole plan the proposal does or does not accord with it.”
They added that material considerations such as “presumption in favour of sustainable development” and “the need to support economic growth” set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, among others, led them to decide that the scheme should be approved.
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