Clifford Chance unveils Docklands details as Norton Rose eyes City office takeover

City giant Clifford Chance has revealed details of its new Canary Wharf offices, to which the firm will move in autumn next year.Although the 30-storey, 785,000 square foot office has yet to receive an address, the outline is already clearly visible on the Isle of Dogs.Last week, the firm took a group of journalists on an evening boat cruise around the site to explain how the development is progressing.Facilities will include a 500-seat restaurant, delicatessen and coffee shop, a fully equipped gym and swimming pool, and underground car parking.The firm has taken a 25-year lease of 22 floors of the building, with an option to rent the remainder.Meanwhile, it has emerged that as part of the deal that sees the firm moving to Docklands, its new landlord - the Canary Wharf Group - will take on the marketing of the lease of the firm's existing premises in Aldersgate Street.City firm Norton Rose - whose lease on Kempson House in Camomile Street expires in 2004 - is considering the Clifford Chance building as a possible replacement for its current spread of City offices.Norton Rose's director of administration Robert McAfee said: 'Clifford Chance is on the market...

I've looked at it and it remains a possibility.'However, he confirmed that the firm is also looking at sites in Docklands, and that it might be 'mutually beneficial' to strike a deal with its current landlord - Heron Group - to lease premises in a new tower block currently awaiting planning permission, which would be built on the site of the firm's current headquarters.Norton Rose has had considerable office space problems in recent years since its old headquarters were devastated by the Bishopsgate bomb in 1993.Jeremy Fleming