Construction of London's 'Walkie Talkie' officially started yesterday at Fenchurch Street, 18 January, following the breaking of the ground by George Iacobescu CBE, Chief Executive Officer of Canary Wharf Group (CWG) and Robert Noel, Managing Director, London Portfolio, Land Securities Group PLC.

Piling for the Rafael Viñoly designed building will commence this week with completion to ground floor planned for February 2012 and final completion anticipated in early 2014. When complete, the 37 storey, 690,000 sq ft building , will provide world class office space with each floor offering 360° of unrivalled views, topped by a public sky garden. The floor plates will range from 14,000 – 28,000 sq ft, providing both flexible high specification accommodation with the larger floor plates on the higher floors, appealing to a wide range of prospective tenants.

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20 Fenchurch Street, EC3 will bring Grade A office space to a supply constrained central London market of 2014 as more than 3m sq ft of leases are expected to expire or see breaks potentially exercised per annum during the next four years. The work to deliver the scheme is expected to support approximately 3,000 jobs throughout the construction process.

The joint venture between Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group was announced in October 2010. Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group have been appointed joint development managers and both are responsible for the leasing, with Land Securities taking the lead. Canary Wharf Contractors Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canary Wharf Group, has been appointed as Construction Manager, bringing its experience of developing over 15m sq ft of grade A office space to its second project in the City of London.

Mr Iacobescu said: "We are delighted to be able to apply our extensive high rise experience to such an iconic development. We look forward to working alongside Land Securities on this exciting project, which will be yet another step forward for London’s economy."

(CD)