Bank of Ireland snaps up City landmark
site
 By Niamh
Hennessy
BANK of Ireland has entered into a partnership for the redevelopment
of the old London Stock Exchange.
BOI’s private banking arm will take a 25 per cent (£37.3million)
stake in the £279million development — which it will share
with Hammerson and GE Capital Real Estate.
BOI said the redevelopment of the 26-storey tower building on Old Broad
Street, adjacent to the Bank of England, will provide 325,000 sq ft of
office space and 7,000 sq ft of retail space.
Construction is scheduled to begin in February next year and is due to
be completed by the end of the year.
Director of Property, Bank of Ireland Private Banking, Peter Collins said:
“We have been looking at the City of London for quite a while and
we believe that now is the right time in the rental cycle to get involved
in a speculative office development.”
He added: “This is a landmark site in the City in terms of location
and will be a Grade A office development in an area where there is currently
a severe lack of similar quality office space.”
This shortage of Grade A office buildings in the City combined with an
improvement in the occupational market means that this redevelopment is
likely to be delivered into a very strong rental market in December next
year, according to Mr Collins.
Bank of Ireland recently announced plans to close half their branch network
in Britain over the coming months.
The 141 BOI employees in Britain will be offered either voluntary redundancy
or a chance for re-deployment.
The branches which will close in the Greater London area are those in
Croydon, Ilford, Kingston, Finchley, Harrow, Shepherd’s Bush, South
Kensington and Luton.
These branches will all merge their business into the bank’s Berkeley
Square offices. The bank’s branch in Southampton will also close
and will merge with Reading, while the Leicester branch will close and
merge with Birmingham.
BOI own three of the 10 branches — Leicester, Luton and Finchley
— and they will sell these properties in due course.
The branches which will remain open include those at Berkeley Square and
Queen Street in London, as well as branches in Cardiff, Bristol, Reading,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow and Edingburgh.
All of the bank’s branch network in Britain are cashless and personal
customers in affected branches will be able to use services through the
bank’s joint venture with The Post Office.
BOI’s business banking volumes have grown substantially in recent
times, up 40 per cent in the year to the end of March 2006. A similarly
healthy performance is expected in half-year figures due this month.
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