Qatar Investment Authority and Canary Wharf Group have submitted plans to Tower Hamlets Council for a £1 billion redevelopment of 8 Canada Square, the 45-storey tower better known as the HSBC Tower. The scheme will convert the building from a single-occupant office block into a mixed-use tower with a 181-room hotel, offices, restaurants and terraces.

8 Canada Square is fully owned by Qatar Investment Authority, the state's sovereign wealth fund, which acquired the building for more than £1.1 billion from the National Pension Service of Korea in 2014.

Canary Wharf Group, headquartered in London and founded in 1993, is acting as development partner on the scheme and owns and develops close to 100 acres of property across the Canary Wharf estate.

The redevelopment follows HSBC's decision to leave the building when its lease expires in 2027, relocating its headquarters elsewhere in London after occupying the tower since 2002.

The lower and ground floors will house the 181-room hotel and leisure facilities, alongside a new public walkway linking the Elizabeth Line station to Canada Square Park. Middle floors will provide office space for multiple corporate tenants, with asset manager BlackRock reportedly among those considering space.

The top floor will feature staggered terraces and a glass structure known as The Cloud, housing restaurants and bars with panoramic views across the city.

The structural driver is converting a legacy single-tenant office tower into a diversified, mixed-use asset ahead of its anchor tenant's departure, spreading future income across hotel, office and leisure uses rather than depending on a single corporate lease.

"We look forward to working with QIA on 8 Canada Square to deliver a building of outstanding design, engineering and sustainability standards. This redevelopment is another step in Canary Wharf's evolution into a vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood," said Shobi Khan, chief executive of Canary Wharf Group.

"We are extremely excited to collaborate with QIA and CWG to reimagine the single-use office building as a blueprint for the highly sustainable, mixed-use building of the future," said Elie Gamburg of architects Kohn Pedersen Fox.

For the sector, the 8 Canada Square scheme illustrates how owners of legacy single-tenant towers are pursuing mixed-use conversion ahead of lease expiry rather than re-letting to a single corporate occupier.

Source: Property Week / City AM / Dezeen