New Bond StreetAn office and retail building situated in the heart of Mayfair on one of London’s best known shopping streets. The original building suffers a poor gross-to-net floorspace which severely restricts the ground floor retail operation and has resulted in poor quality office space on the upper floors. Over the last decade the offices had, in some cases, been vacant for longer than they were occupied. We were instructed to prepare and submit pre-application plans and a subsequent planning application to redevelop the site for continued office and retail use. We advised the client of the possibilities of achieving additional area for development at the rear of the site in Haunch of Venison Yard and at roof level. These set out a sensible target in terms of the replacement floorspace for retail and office uses given the West End location and CAZ designation.The application comprised the redevelopment behind the retained façade of the New Bond Street building to provide two floors (and a mezzanine) for Class A1 use and six floors of offices. We successfully persuaded Westminster City Council that the first floor should have a flexible A1/B1 to provide the client with flexibility to respond to market demand.The scheme delivers an equivalent quantum of retail floorspace – albeit significantly more efficient and useable – and an uplift of 57% of office floorspace to approximately 2,000 sqm. The scheme was highly commended by planning officers and was unanimously approved by the Planning Committee. Client: Samocar WorldwideLPA: City of WestminsterArchitect: Rolfe Judd ArchitectureSectors: Mixed-Use Offices