One of the largest property loans ever agreed for a London office refurbishment will bankroll the transformation of a landmark 11-storey block on the edge of the City of London into more than 700,000 sq ft of premium, low-carbon workspace.
Banking groups ING and DBS have each underwritten half of a £1.016 billion development facility for One Spitalfields, the office scheme at 1–10 Bishops Square being repositioned on behalf of institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Rather than demolishing the building, the project team will keep its structural frame and rebuild around it — an approach that dramatically cuts the embodied carbon of construction while creating the kind of generous floorplates, terraces and amenities that occupiers now expect. The finished scheme is chasing the two most demanding badges in commercial property: an EPC A energy rating and BREEAM Outstanding certification.
Jennie Norman, a director in ING’s real estate team, said reusing existing buildings would be “vital” to cleaning up Britain’s commercial property stock, describing One Spitalfields as proof that large-scale lending can modernise a major City asset.
Diane Wonfor, DBS Bank’s executive director and head of London real estate, called the scheme “a major investment in the future of the City of London”, adding that the financing reflected the bank’s longstanding relationship with J.P. Morgan Asset Management and would back “one of the City’s most significant refurbishment projects”. She said keeping and upgrading the existing building would combine strong sustainability credentials with “a modern workplace designed for the needs of today’s occupiers”.
Michael Ramm, head of European real estate at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said the facility ranked among the biggest development loans ever originated in the London office market, and that the strength of lender appetite underlined his team’s track record in delivering large, complex schemes.
Demand for the finished space is already strong: 465,000 sq ft — around two-thirds of the total — has been pre-let, a level of early commitment that shows how hungry occupiers are for best-in-class, sustainable floorspace in the Square Mile.
Why the Square Mile is refitting rather than rebuilding
The deal lands at a moment when London’s office market has split in two. Rents and occupancy for top-rated, energy-efficient buildings have held firm or climbed, while older blocks without credible green credentials have struggled to attract tenants — or finance. With the government consulting on rules that would require commercial premises to reach EPC B by 2030 before they can be let, landlords sitting on ageing stock face a simple choice: upgrade, or watch the asset strand.
Refurbishment has become the favoured answer. Keeping the frame avoids the carbon cost of demolition and new concrete, which can account for a huge share of a building’s lifetime emissions, and it is typically faster and less disruptive than starting from scratch. Lenders, in turn, are competing hardest for exactly these projects — schemes with serious pre-lets and watertight sustainability targets — and the One Spitalfields facility shows the scale of capital now on offer. Similar ambition is visible beyond the office market: London’s new £45m Greenwich campus, for example, has opened as the first of its kind in the UK with a top green rating.
The financing also underlines how international the City’s property market has become: a Dutch bank and a Singaporean bank jointly underwriting a London refurbishment, on behalf of global institutional capital, advised by an American asset manager.
What the overhaul means for people working in the City
For the thousands of staff who will eventually fill the building, the finished product promises the full modern City package: light, flexible floors, outdoor terraces, generous cycling and changing facilities, and food and retail at street level on the Bishops Square side of Spitalfields, moments from Liverpool Street station.
In the shorter term, a scheme of this size means years of skilled construction work and supply-chain spending in and around the Square Mile, from specialist fit-out contractors to the cafés and shops serving the site workforce. And the fact that two-thirds of the space was spoken for before the refit is even finished sends a wider signal: despite the rise of hybrid working, major employers still want their people together in the City — and are willing to sign long leases to get the right building.
The investment sits alongside the City of London’s distinctive civic life, where the business vote helps decide who runs the Square Mile — a contest recently shaken up by a surprise withdrawal. Beyond the office towers, the City is also putting money into its residential neighbourhoods, with a new youth skills hub opening at One Golden Lane. One Spitalfields, though, is about the working City: proof that when the building is right, the money — more than a billion pounds of it — will follow.
