Pinnacle Secures First Pre-Let

With early construction work continuing on London's Pinnacle skyscraper, a 288 metre tall building to stand on Bishopsgate, details of the first pre-let for the building have been announced.

Rex Restaurants Associates has agreed to take 1,200 square metres of space in the tower to fill with a top quality restaurant and cocktail bar.

This translates into occupying the upper-most levels of the building from 58 to 63 in a move that will see it become the highest restaurant in the whole of Europe and some 100 metres further up than the London's tallest current eatery in Tower 42.

Rex Restaurants Associates is led by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King who already control the popular Wosley restaurant and cafe in London's Piccadilly.

It has established a restaurant with a reputation for a high quality of food and excellent service whilst being relatively inexpensive as long as one doesn't order the caviar. It's a formula they hope to apply again here pitching them in firm competition with Rhodes 24 in Tower 42.

There is other good news for Arab Investments who are developing the Pinnacle in the form of an agreement regarding the short-term loan from German company, Union Real Estate. Despite turmoil on the credit market, the loan to finance the site has been extended past its original repayment date of November 2008 putting the project on a surer footing.

So confident are Arab Investors they can pull it off without immediate financial help the developer is not currently looking for an investment partner.

The developers of the Pinnacle hope to complete the scheme in the first half of 2012 although there have been several months worth of delays caused by legal tussles with neighbour Hiscox, and the requirements following complaints for the contractors to work quieter and slower than they would otherwise have done when demolishing Crosby Court.

Nonetheless, piling of the foundations is now being carried out on site and the developers are steaming ahead regardless.