Real Estate

In London, New York and Paris, a Giant Office Bet Is Going Wrong

As companies around the world insist on only the very best and newest office blocks, Korean real-estate investors look especially vulnerable to the impact.

The One Poultry building in the City of London.

Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
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A trip to the restaurant that sits atop the No. 1 Poultry office block in London’s financial district is a chance to experience firsthand the Tale of Two Cities that’s upending the commercial real-estate market.

From the vantage point of the Coq d’Argent you can gaze out at a forest of new skyscrapers that developers hope will bring in big rents and even bigger prices. For the South Korean owners of the older WeWork-occupied building down below, the future looks far bleaker.