Canary Wharf Chief Executive George Iacobescu confirmed that planning applications were imminent on the North Quay and Riverside sites. The projects will extend the life of Canary Wharf Group as a developer, because the existing masterplan for 14 million sf of development is almost complete. Roughly seven million sf of offices are completed and occupied at Canary Wharf, with another 5.5 million sf under construction, of which only 500,000 sf is speculative development.

On the Riverside site, to the south-west of the main site, the Richard Rogers Partnership has designed a family of three buildings totalling 1.8 million sf. And On the North Quay site another group of three buildings has been designed by Cesar Pelli, who was responsible for the One Canada Square and HSBC towers at Canary Wharf. This will provide up to 2.4 million sf of office and retail space, integrated with a proposed station for London's new Crossrail fast underground line.

At the same time an agreement has been reached with British Waterways Board to lift restrictive covenants and allow Canary Wharf to build another 1.57 million sf within the original Canary Wharfestate. Iacobescu also said another potential development site had been identified between Riversideand Heron Quays which is attracting significant interest.

The news came as Canary Wharf unveiled its preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2002. Pre-tax profit rose to £300 million ($470 million) from £95 million ($150 million)a year previously on turnover up from £159 million ($250 million) to £206 million ($320 million) thanks to a £169 million ($265 million) exceptional profit on the sale of the one million-sf HSBC Tower to the occupier.