London skyline's £1.5bn addition remains all but empty year on from opening, with flats designed to pull in super-rich unsold
Soaring 310 metres (1,016ft) high and with 72 storeys, everything about the Shard is dramatic.
The London Bridge skyscraper – the capital's newest landmark, with views stretching 40 miles and which is visible to drivers crawling around the M25 – bills itself as "Europe's first vertical city".
It is the highest building in western Europe and, together with the Place, a 17-storey "baby Shard" next door, it cost its Qatari backers £1.5bn.
The skyscraper's observation deck can be hired out for corporate events at £30,000 an hour and tables at its three restaurants are reported to be in huge demand.
But despite the stunning design by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and glamorous marketing, almost a year after its opening the building remains practically a shell.
Ten apartments, designed to pull in some of the richest people on the planet with price tags of £30m to £50m each, lie empty – still for sale just as the so-called ultra-prime London property market seems to be slowing.
The five star Shangri-La hotel, which was originally scheduled to open last summer, has yet to welcome its first guest, while the Shard's 25-floor office complex currently has just one tenant, on the 14th floor – Duff & Phelps, an insolvency practice that few outside the business world have heard of.
Over the coming days the tower will attempt to persuade the property industry that it is finally more than just a nice view. Two new tenants are expected to be unveiled: the Qatari-based media group Al Jazeera and a US private hospital group, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), have finally signed deals .
It will mean the Shard will become home to one of the largest private medical clinics in Britain, stretched over three floors with 100 consulting rooms, a diagnostics centre and a 24-hour walk-in surgery.
Three further tenants could also expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks, with another Qatari-owned business, South Hook Liquefied Natural Gas Company, among the names being gossiped about.
But even with all the support coming from Doha for one of the country's highest-profile investments, the office complex will only be around a third full, which many believe is entirely predictable.
The Heron Tower, the 46-storey, 230-metre skyscraper in the City, opened in March 2011 with two tenants – the US law firm McDermott Will & Emery and Landmark, a serviced office company. Progress has been sluggish. Nearly three years since launch its owners are not confident enough to say exactly how much space is taken. They will only say the building is "more than two-thirds let".
The Gherkin, Ken Shuttleworth's stunning tower in the City, has fared rather better. It opened in April 2004 and the insurance company Swiss Re, which commissioned the building, was initially the only occupant, albeit one that took the first 16 of the 34 office floors. However, the building is now fully let and property industry sources say it attracts some of Europe's highest office rents.
The Gherkin is a case study for how skyscrapers tend to be filled: just like their construction, it is often from the ground up. It is thought that HCA will occupy three of the lowest floors in the Shard, paying an estimated £50 a sq ft a year for its space – half the cost of top West End offices. But after a few lower-paying tenants arrive, the Shard will want to attract higher rents on the higher floors, comparable with the major City skyscrapers at nearer £70 a sq ft.
Despite all the scepticism, there is room for optimism that one day this might be achieved, because the market for office rentals has finally started to improve after several years of pain since the financial crisis.
The property group Cushman & Wakefield says 11m sq ft of central London office space was snapped up last year, a big increase on the 2012 figure of 7.3m sq ft. The media and technology sector dominated activity, accounting for 36% of all letting volumes in 2013.
But part of the additional challenge for the Shard is to convince businesses that London Bridge Quarter, the 2m sq ft regeneration project on the South Bank, will be a desirable area in which to be based.
Many City figures remain sniffy about moving their businesses there, while property industry sources say that the ultra-wealthy Qatari owners have been unwilling to drop their asking prices in order to attract tenants.
Transport for London, which runs the capital's tubes and buses, originally committed itself to relocating to swanky new space in the Shard, but eventually pulled out, with the consent of the building's owners. It is now in cheaper accommodation elsewhere in south London.
Still, there are suggestions that the perception of working around London Bridge may be changing.
News UK, the publisher of the Times and the Sun, recently signed an agreement to move into the Place.
And, undeterred by the vast empty floors inside the skyscraper, another tower is now planned. Renzo Piano has been commissioned to design a new 27-storey residential building, complete with a roof garden, in the shadow of the Shard. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
Soaring 310 metres (1,016ft) high and with 72 storeys, everything about the Shard is dramatic.
The London Bridge skyscraper – the capital's newest landmark, with views stretching 40 miles and which is visible to drivers crawling around the M25 – bills itself as "Europe's first vertical city".
It is the highest building in western Europe and, together with the Place, a 17-storey "baby Shard" next door, it cost its Qatari backers £1.5bn.
The skyscraper's observation deck can be hired out for corporate events at £30,000 an hour and tables at its three restaurants are reported to be in huge demand.
But despite the stunning design by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and glamorous marketing, almost a year after its opening the building remains practically a shell.
Ten apartments, designed to pull in some of the richest people on the planet with price tags of £30m to £50m each, lie empty – still for sale just as the so-called ultra-prime London property market seems to be slowing.
The five star Shangri-La hotel, which was originally scheduled to open last summer, has yet to welcome its first guest, while the Shard's 25-floor office complex currently has just one tenant, on the 14th floor – Duff & Phelps, an insolvency practice that few outside the business world have heard of.
Over the coming days the tower will attempt to persuade the property industry that it is finally more than just a nice view. Two new tenants are expected to be unveiled: the Qatari-based media group Al Jazeera and a US private hospital group, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), have finally signed deals .
It will mean the Shard will become home to one of the largest private medical clinics in Britain, stretched over three floors with 100 consulting rooms, a diagnostics centre and a 24-hour walk-in surgery.
Three further tenants could also expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks, with another Qatari-owned business, South Hook Liquefied Natural Gas Company, among the names being gossiped about.
But even with all the support coming from Doha for one of the country's highest-profile investments, the office complex will only be around a third full, which many believe is entirely predictable.
The Heron Tower, the 46-storey, 230-metre skyscraper in the City, opened in March 2011 with two tenants – the US law firm McDermott Will & Emery and Landmark, a serviced office company. Progress has been sluggish. Nearly three years since launch its owners are not confident enough to say exactly how much space is taken. They will only say the building is "more than two-thirds let".
The Gherkin, Ken Shuttleworth's stunning tower in the City, has fared rather better. It opened in April 2004 and the insurance company Swiss Re, which commissioned the building, was initially the only occupant, albeit one that took the first 16 of the 34 office floors. However, the building is now fully let and property industry sources say it attracts some of Europe's highest office rents.
The Gherkin is a case study for how skyscrapers tend to be filled: just like their construction, it is often from the ground up. It is thought that HCA will occupy three of the lowest floors in the Shard, paying an estimated £50 a sq ft a year for its space – half the cost of top West End offices. But after a few lower-paying tenants arrive, the Shard will want to attract higher rents on the higher floors, comparable with the major City skyscrapers at nearer £70 a sq ft.
Despite all the scepticism, there is room for optimism that one day this might be achieved, because the market for office rentals has finally started to improve after several years of pain since the financial crisis.
The property group Cushman & Wakefield says 11m sq ft of central London office space was snapped up last year, a big increase on the 2012 figure of 7.3m sq ft. The media and technology sector dominated activity, accounting for 36% of all letting volumes in 2013.
But part of the additional challenge for the Shard is to convince businesses that London Bridge Quarter, the 2m sq ft regeneration project on the South Bank, will be a desirable area in which to be based.
Many City figures remain sniffy about moving their businesses there, while property industry sources say that the ultra-wealthy Qatari owners have been unwilling to drop their asking prices in order to attract tenants.
Transport for London, which runs the capital's tubes and buses, originally committed itself to relocating to swanky new space in the Shard, but eventually pulled out, with the consent of the building's owners. It is now in cheaper accommodation elsewhere in south London.
Still, there are suggestions that the perception of working around London Bridge may be changing.
News UK, the publisher of the Times and the Sun, recently signed an agreement to move into the Place.
And, undeterred by the vast empty floors inside the skyscraper, another tower is now planned. Renzo Piano has been commissioned to design a new 27-storey residential building, complete with a roof garden, in the shadow of the Shard. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.