Qatar planning 27-storey tower next to Shard

[LONDON] Qatar plans to extend its London property empire with a 27-storey tower next to the Shard, the landmark skyscraper that still has free office space but no permanent residents one-and-a-half years after it opened.

The new 14,860 sq m building, which developer Sellar Property Group said on Tuesday will contain shops and 150 flats, marks the latest phase in the redevelopment of the area around London Bridge train station.

It will sit between the glass-clad Shard, funded by the Qatari royal family and opened in a blaze of publicity in July 2012, and a smaller office block called The Place, earmarked as the new home of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.