Opposite Cannon Street station in the City of London is a fast-changing development site surrounded by boards proudly bearing the promise: Minerva PLC delivering Walbrook for 2009.

Read that again, this time with a rising note of panic. With just over a year to go before completion, the likelihood of finding a tenant for Minerva’s rotund glass building, the Walbrook, seems increasingly slight. And Minerva’s other City scheme, at St Botolph’s, due for completion six months later, is only partially let.