January 2010 « London Offices

London Offices > London Offices News

Avanta expand City business centre

Filed under: News — Tags: 9 Devonshire Square, Avanta, Liverpool Lime Street Station, London office space, office space — admin @ 9:01 am

Avanta have announced they have expanded one of their business centres in the City of London.

High demand has led the provider to take an extra floor at 9 Devonshire Square raising it’s total floorspace by 15,407 square feet from its current 29,000 square feet. The business centre is Avanta’s second in the City and has gone from strength to strength since opening in January 2009. Within the first few months it was 80% full, bucking the trend that saw many other commercial buildings in the area suffer. (more…)

Comments (0)

London firms to pay 2% Crossrail levy

Filed under: News — Tags: Boris Johnson, crossrail, levy, London Mayor, London office space, SME's — Amy Edwards @ 9:01 am

Boris Johnson has sparked anger among many London SME’s by revealing that they will have to pay a 2% business levy from April to cover the cost of the Crossrail.

Around 80% of SME’s will be exempt from the levy, while commercial properties with a value of £55,000+ will be made to pay the bulk. Many critics have called the levy “ill timed” as many businesses are struggling to recover from the recession. The original proposals for the levy were to charge properties worth £50,000 upwards. The Mayor of London claims raising the value has made around 4,000 businesses exempt. (more…)

Comments (0)

BBP offer free green building advice for London SME’s

Filed under: News — Tags: BBP, Boris Johnson, GE Capital Real Estate, green guidelines, london, London office space, SME's — Amy Edwards @ 9:01 am

Businesses in London are being offered free green office advice by the Better Buildings Partnership.

The BBP have published a new online tool kit to help businesses measure the energy use from their current building and give them suggestions on how they can reduce this and get the best value for money from their building. Many London buildings have multiple tenants, which has so far made it difficult to measure energy use. The new toolkit will give step by step guidance on how to monitor energy use and improve performance, floor by floor. (more…)

Comments (0)

Insurance industry favours London office space

Filed under: News — Tags: City office space, London office space, NB Real Estate, recession — Amy Edwards @ 9:56 am

New statistics have shown that it was the insurance sector that propped up the struggling London commercial property market last year.

Research from NB Real Estate revealed that 30% of all the City office lettings in Q4 of 2009 went to insurance companies. This equates to around 250,000 square feet of the total 860,000 square feet leased in the fourth quarter. It’s believed the insurance sector, who were one of the only industries to escape the recession practically unscathed, chose to take advantage of the low rents and available office space in 2009. (more…)

Comments (0)

New London office space to meet increasing demand

Filed under: News — Tags: Grosvenor, london, Mayfair, office space — admin @ 12:46 pm

A new address in the Mayfair area of the capital, 67 Grosvenor Street, will provide serviced and virtual offices, in addition to meeting room and lounge facilities.

The property, owned by international property company Grosvenor, is newly refurbished and intended to offer modern, high-tech office space in an established, desirable location. Dating back to 1723, the building originally served as two townhouses. Following the renovation it is 6 stories of open plan office space, overlooking private gardens. (more…)

Comments (0)

BlackRock wins race for Drapers Gardens

Filed under: News — Tags: BlackRock, Daiwa, EC2, London office space, Macquarie, Stephenson Harwood — Amy Edwards @ 11:41 am

BlackRock have sensationally beaten Macquarie to take office space in Drapers Gardens, EC2.

Back in October, Macquarie had agreed to take 230,000 square feet in the development, which is owned by Canary Wharf Group and Exemplar Properties. But just before Christmas, landlords began to favour BlackRock after they placed the whole building under offer – 270,000 square feet. BlackRock are believed to have agreed rents of around £50 per square foot, considerably more than the £45 per square foot agreed by Macquarie. (more…)

Comments (0)

Cannon Place development defies the recession

Filed under: News — Tags: Cannon Place, Cannon Street, EC4, Hines, Network Rail — Amy Edwards @ 12:16 pm

Network Rail and Hines are defying the recession by pressing on with their development on London’s Cannon Street, EC4.

The project, dubbed Cannon Place, consists of 400,000 square feet of space, including 8 storeys of office space above a new railway concourse and tube station entrance. A few weeks ago they released new images of the building which they said “bucked the trend” by being one of the only new office buildings to open in 2011. The current train station at Cannon Street is one of the busiest in the UK, serving 95,000 City workers a day and is in desperate need of a transformation. (more…)

Comments (3)

Will The Shard fulfil promise to have highest rents since 1980′s?

Filed under: News — Tags: Irvine Sellars, London office space, sellars property group, the shard — Amy Edwards @ 9:01 am

The Shard office block in Central London, soon to be one of Europe’s tallest towers, is now under construction and is slowly creeping up month after month.

Due for completion in 2012, The Shard will tower above the other office blocks in London at 310 metres. It will have 80 floors, 600,000 square feet of office space and a 5* hotel. It marks a major commitment to the London commercial property market at a time when many developers chose to freeze existing developments at the height of the recession. About a third of the office space has been pre-let to Transport For London but Irvine Sellars, of Sellar Property Group, now has a challenge ahead. (more…)

Comments (1)

West End regains title as world’s most expensive office space

Filed under: News — Tags: DTZ, dubai, hong kong, London office space, paris, recession, West End — Amy Edwards @ 9:01 am

London’s West End has knocked Tokyo off the top of the list to regain the title of the world’s most expensive office space.

DTZ has said stabilising rents and business confidence has pushed the West End back up to the top spot, beating Dubai, Tokyo and Paris. The result comes as part of DTZ’s Global Occupancy Costs Survey and the firm predicts the West End will hold onto this title until at least 2013. The West End was named as the most expensive business district from 2002-2008 when it was pushed down to 5th place as the recession took hold. The pound’s current strength against the dollar is also believed to have had a major impact on the rankings. (more…)

Comments (0)

3 new firms commit to space in St Martin’s Courtyard

Filed under: News — Tags: Covent Garden office space, Dishoom, Oreleo Restaurants, Robert Walters, Shaftesbury, St Martin's Courtyard — Amy Edwards @ 9:01 am

Shaftesbury’s St Martin’s Courtyard scheme in Covent Garden has signed 3 new tenants this week.

3 properties have been let to 3 individual firms in the latest deals to be completed in London’s theatre district. The Courtyard comprises of 5 restaurants, 23 shops and 69,000 square feet of office space. It’s owned by Longmartin; the joint venture between Shaftesbury, who mainly focus on properties within the theatre area, and The Mercers’ Company. (more…)

Comments (0)

Older Posts »