Forthcoming London projects, including the 41-storey SwissRebuilding, a re-developed Elephant and Castle and the headquarters of the Greater London Authority, could make it seem that Norman Foster is redesigning the capital in his own image.
The transaction will be completed this month, but Swiss Re's U.K. operations will stay in the building as a tenant until 2031, holding 50% of the office space.
Fears that a September 11th-like attack would occur in London helped keep the upper half of the building empty by the autumn of 2004, with SwissRe taking up the rest of the office space.