Newest London Office Building: Cheesegrater Style Skyscraper

Businesses looking for space within a Grade A London office building will soon be able to rent an office within in the Cheesegrater as a serviced office specialist is to open a business centre within the iconic skyscraper.

Australian serviced office company Servcorp has signed up to take 12,000 sq ft of space in the Cheesegrater, becoming the first company to let a complete single floor within the London office building. The business centre will be situated on Level 30 of the impressive skyscraper, which is due to reach completion in Spring/Summer this year.

The company already operates a business centre on Old Broad Street within the City and they also have a London office building in Canary Wharf. The Cheesegrater location will be their tenth business centre in Europe.

Servcorp specialises in providing serviced office space within iconic buildings. They have business centres in major cities around the world, including The Seagram Building in New York, Emirates Towers in Dubai, and IFC 2 in Hong Kong. Altogether, the company operates more than 130 locations worldwide.

According to Warren James who manages the International Property Portfolio at Servcorp: “Servcorp is highly selective in its choice of buildings and our objective is always to be in the best in town: The Leadenhall Building is certainly that. It will provide our clients with accommodation of very high quality in a building of real distinction.”

Their Cheesegrater offering will bring high-grade flexible space to yet another new iconic London office building, throwing down the gauntlet to other serviced office providers based within the many City skyscrapers. They will face some tough competition, with Heron Tower and the Gherkin home to some of the most prestigious and impressive business centres in the capital.

British Land and Oxford Properties’ dramatic high-rise building looks set to become one of the success stories of the recent London skyscraper boom. While this new Cheesegrater style London office building steadily fills up with tenants, the Shard is still largely empty and is reportedly now struggling to attract residential tenants for its luxury apartments. The skyscraper celebrated pre-launch as the vertical city is beginning to look more and more like a vertical ghost town.

Meanwhile, The Walkie-Talkie – also due for completion this year – suffered a setback in 2013 when it was discovered that the building’s concave surface was reflecting the sun’s rays at such a high intensity that it was melting nearby cars and bikes.

Plans to restart the stalled Pinnacle building are also currently on pause, while negotiations to find a new investor take place. In the meantime, the Cheesegrater continues to lead the pack.

Is the Cheesegrater set to be the skyscraper success story of 2014? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Image: The Leadenhall Building aka The Cheesegrater under construction in October 2013 © The Leadenhall Development Company Ltd.