Waterloo: The Slow Ride To Regeneration Begins To Speed Up
BrewDog has joined the long list of intended or potential users of the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo.
The £200M development by London Continental Railways has so far struggled to make an impression for tenants.
The craft brewer is to take 26K SF to create a two-floor venue, due to launch in summer 2022, the Evening Standard reported. A bowling alley will be included.
BrewDog will occupy the space that was to have been occupied by a Time Out food market, one of many ventures that have come to nothing since the last trains pulled out of the cross-channel terminal in 2007. Time Out pulled out of 35K SF plans in March.
Whilst the Eurostar platforms have been reconnected to the main Waterloo suburban network, the terminal building has struggled to find a role. Plans for 130K SF of retail in 40 units were approved in 2016.
The retail scheme hit the buffers as one of Waterloo’s longest, slowest moving projects finally picks up speed.
Recent transactions at Waterloo suggest an appetite for the area among corporate occupiers.
Key deals include IBM’s decision to take 157K SF at Southbank Place, believed to have set a new rental tone for the Southbank area.
JLL data shows Waterloo remains among the most affordable central London office districts, with a prime rent of £65 per SF.
HB Reavis’ £600M redevelopment of Elisabeth House, Waterloo, into a 31-storey, 1.2M SF office has now overcome its final legal obstacle with the signing of a section 106 planning gain agreement.
The site’s planning history has been long and fraught, largely because of the prominent location and the risk a tower might interfere with protected views.
Planning permission for a scheme designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris was approved in October 2019. HB Reavis acquired the scheme in 2017 for £250M, replacing London & Regional and Chelsfield, which had pursued a residential and office scheme designed by David Chipperfield Architects that won permission in 2012. The joint owners themselves acquired it in 2010 in a deal with P&O Developments.
Plans for redevelopment of the 5-acre site were aired in 2004 and had long been in debate in the 1990s after the Department of Education indicated it would move out.
