Allen & Overy, a London law firm, have announced plans to consolidate their offices into a hub in central London. The firm will relocate 200 staff from their 64,500 sq ft Canary Wharf office to headquarters in Bishopsgate.
The Canary Wharf office will still be part-retained with the law firm using 21,500 sq ft on the top floor for meeting facilities – the remaining 43,000 sq ft of office space, spread over three floors, will be sub let.
Due to the recession and uncertainties in the market, Hammerson property developers have decided to sell some of their office assets.
Hammerson, which is a FTSE 100 company, is attempting to sell the £150m Harbour Exchange Square in the London Docklands and has further plans to become a leading seller of London office space.
However with rental price increases since August 2009 and an increase of competitors there are serious concerns that the decision may come at a bad time.
By securing a £43 million investment from Brookefield Properties, Great Portland Estates are now in a comfortable position to go ahead with the construction of new London-based offices.
Brookfield Properties, which already own 22% of Canary Wharf, now have a 50% stake in the development at Bishopsgate.
Analysts, at JP Morgan Financial Services, have said that the development could cost up to £560 million and that, “The project was too big for Great Portland to comfortably do alone, in our view.”
As a result, without this financial backing the development may have been put on hold.