Construction of the City of London's tallest skyscraper has been stopped at just the seventh floor

 

Construction of the City of London's tallest skyscraper has been stopped at just the seventh floor amid funding concerns, with serious doubts that the 63-storey office block will ever be finished. A failure to sign up any major tenants has left the £800m Bishopsgate Tower – commonly known as "the Pinnacle" – indefinitely stunted. Prospective occupants are said to be scared of committing to costly office rental deals while the eurozone is in the grip of financial crisis. Located at the heart of London's financial district, the Pinnacle is one of Britain's key architectural projects. Its intended height of 288m would make it Europe's second-tallest skyscraper after the Shard, which has almost been completed on the other side of the River Thames at London Bridge. Yet with its main investor calling builders off the site two weeks ago, the ugly concrete stump left behind is a worrying sign for developers of other towers in the capital. The Pinnacle, the Shard, the "Cheesegrater" at 122 Leadenhall Street, the "Walkie Talkie" at 20 Fenchurch Street and the Bishopsgate Tower – all at varying degrees of completion – have reportedly signed only one office rental deal between them. The news comes at an alarming time for commercial property developers across the world. A lack of clients for the 80-storey Three World Trade Centre – one of the skyscrapers replacing the twin towers at Ground Zero in New York – means it may instead have to become a mere seven-storey shopping centre.

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