An Irish property developer, Tom Ryan, revealed his plans to build a 74-storey skyscraper in eastern Docklands, the site he has bought for £100m last week. This purchase is allegedly the first one amongst a series of UK property investments planned by Mr Ryan. As part of the application, Ryan will also invest heavily into social housing in the surrounding areas of Poplar, Limehouse and the Isle of Dogs.
The Hertsmere Tower will not only be 7 metres higher than the tallest office building, One Canada Square, at 235 metres in Canary Wharf but will easily surpass Europe’s tallest residential building, the Sky Tower in Wroclaw, Poland, which is 212 metres. However, it will be 64 metres shorter than Europe’s overall tallest building, The Shard at London Bridge, which is 318 metres tall and consists mainly of offices, a hotel and restaurants.
According to the chief operating officer at Ryan Corporation UK, Richard Berridge, the tower will provide 714 apartments covering more than half a million square feet at £1,000 per square foot.
Dominic Grace, a director at Savills, remarked that the scheme sets Canary Wharf as a prime residential destination. “The pendulum has swung in favour of east London, Canary Wharf is becoming the truly 21st-century part of London because it’s unencumbered by the small period properties prevalent in the rest of the capital; developers can create larger, more international-style buildings.”
The ambitious scheme is expected to result in a race with three other developers who are also planning to build an iconic residential skyscraper in London’s Docklands.
Developer Canary Wharf has proposed plans to build the Diamond Tower with 58 floors of luxury apartments, while Berkeley Homes submitted a scoping report for its scheme of an 80-storey main tower with two other 35-floor and 6-floor buildings at South Quay Plaza.
Chalegrove Properties, on the other hand, has already acquired an approval for a 75-storey residential tower with 864 flats and 84 serviced apartments to be build in the place of the City Pride pub in Westferry Road.