The risk management company will lease close to 200,000 sq ft in the City’s new ‘Cheesegrater’.

The risk management company Aon has agreed to pre-let nearly 200,000 sq ft of office space in the City’s new Leadenhall Building. As part of a deal with the property owners British Land and Oxford Properties, Aon will lease 10 floors out a possible 47 when the building is completed in 2014.

Located at 122 Leadenhall Street, the new Leadenhall Building has been designed by Richard Rogers and has been dubbed the ‘Cheesegrater’ thanks to its unusual design. Measuring in at 736 ft tall, the Leadenhall Building will become one of the London’s most iconic office space buildings behind the Shard and the ‘Gherkin’ once it’s completed.

Commenting on the new pre-let, CEO of Aon Limited Robert Brown said: “We are delighted to have chosen The Leadenhall Building as our new London headquarters. The Aon Centre at The Leadenhall Building places us at the heart of the City’s insurance sector and the building’s impressive location and offices reflect our standing as the leading global professional services firm focused on risk and human capital management.”

The deal comes in the same week that travel retailer lastminute.com announced that it had agreed to take new office space in the Johnson Building at 77 Hatton Garden. The firm will lease 22,300 sq ft of office space across the entire third floor of the Derwent London-owned building in EC1.

“The redevelopment of the Johnson Building was completed in 2006 and is one of Derwent London’s flagship schemes. We are delighted to welcome Lastminute.com to this high quality Midtown property where they will be joining well known occupiers such as Grey Communications and Thomson Reuters,” commented Derwent London CEO John Burns.

The London-based company has gained approval for the £105m office development hub which will house 289,00 square feet of office space.

Derwent London has been granted planning permission for a 16-storey office block and associated developments by Old Street Roundabout in the City of London Borders.

The 289,000 square foot redevelopment of the City Road Estate site includes 271,000 square feet of office space, 10,000 square feet of retail and 8,000 square foot of private residential accommodation.

The capital expenditure for the new scheme is anticipated to be in the region of £105 million.

The centrepiece of the building’s design by architects Alford Hall Monaghan Morris is a 16-storey office building that will incorporate Derwent’s ‘White Collar Factory’ concept.

The design uses passive measures such as concrete-slab cooling and generous floor-to-ceiling heights to provide spacious, flexible accommodation that is cheap to run and more environmentally sustainable than a conventional building.

The planning permission from the London Borough of Islington includes full payment of the Crossrail levy and a large contribution for off-site affordable housing, according to the developer.

The main building will be complemented by mixture of new and refurbished five and six-storey office buildings which will be targeted at technology companies are being attracted to this area.

Derwent London chief executive John Burns said: “We are delighted to have won this major planning consent, which follows closely on the heels of our recent planning success at 80 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia W1.  The proposed City Road Estate scheme, incorporating our White Collar Factory concept, will be an exciting new project for the group at this up-and-coming location that is proving highly appealing to the technology and media sectors.”

The new scheme represents a 130% increase on the building’s current floorspace of 124,000 square feet.

Although on track to meet their end of the year forecast, the company says the next six months could be shaky for the UK commercial property market as a whole.

Increased demand for West End office space has helped Derwent London to achieve 10% NAV growth in the first six months of 2011.

The London Real Estate Investment Trust has managed to increase its net asset value by 10% to equal 1621 pence per share and says it feels confident it can hit its targets of 1726 pence per share by the end of the year. The firm says that unlike other parts of the capital, demand for office space has failed to slow down in the West End.

“We would have noticed deals going through slower and companies not signing leases but that is not happening at the moment,” Derwent London chief executive John Burns told Reuters.

Official figures show that in the first six months of 2011, the firm’s portfolio increased in value by 5.1%, while the Central London assets (which represent around 96% of the entire portfolio) increased by 5.3%. Out of the entire portfolio, the REIT’s West End properties reflected the best return with a growth of 5.4%, while the City border properties increased by 4.9%.

Despite the strong results and a belief they will hit their personal targets, Derwent London were less than enthusiastic about what the coming six months may hold for the UK office space market.

“Throughout the first half, conditions in the central London market were favourable, supported by investment and tenant demand. However, recent concerns over the weakness of the global economic recovery, the levels of sovereign debt in Europe and the US budget deficit have made the outlook for the second half more uncertain,” commented the company’s chairman Robbie Rayne.

“We are mindful of the risks that this presents but have no significant exposure to the City core which is likely to be affected most by these influences.”

Derwent office space lease to two new clients.

Derwent‘s has attracted two new tenants to its office space in the heart of Central London. The buildings have recently won awards for the refurbishment that they underwent. Both of Derwent’s properties, the Angel building and Fitzroy+Maple, have won a RIBA London award this year and the Angel has scooped a BCO London award.

The first client to take office space was Sage (UK) Limited, the company has taken out a lease for 12,500 square feet of commercial offices in the Angel Building. The firm have take a long term 10 year lease agreement with a break available at 5.5 years for the rate of £42 per square foot. The Angel Building is now close to full occupancy with some smaller office space still available. During negotiations Sage were represented by CB Richard Ellis, DTZ, H2SO and Pilcher Hershman.

“We are delighted to welcome Sage to the Angel Building and Keyhaven to Maple Place. This continues Derwent London’s strong letting performance in 2011. Both buildings have attracted substantial occupier interest, illustrating the value of investing in award-winning design and architecture,” commented Celine Thompson, head of leasing at Derwent London.

Keyhaven Capital Partners took up the space in Maple Place. The company leased the entire building taking up a lease on the full 11,500 square feet of office space. Keyhaven took out a 10 year lease with no breaks with a rate of £41 per square foot.

Office development plans refused planning permission in London.

Derwent London has had its plans to redevelop the Saatchi office block refused. The building is located at Charlotte Street in Camden. The plans were rejected by Camden Council because they failed to meet the requirements and standards of the council’s planning policies.

The majority of the committee was against the planning proposals with eight votes to three rejecting the project. Derwent’s proposal included expanding the office floorspace from its current 25,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet. To do so the company planned to knock down the local pub ‘The Pregnant Man‘.

Additionally the plans included the construction of retail and restaurant premises and the addition of new floors. Derwent ran into problems with the intrusion of public space. It was also argued that the potential return on capital that Derwent would make would not be able to provide enough capital for additional public space later on down the line.

“The open space is not enough for the office workers let alone the surrounding residential community, [Derwent] have failed to meet any of our policies,” commented councillor Flick Rea.

Many local residents also protested the plans as they did not want to be overshadowed by the proposed five extra stories of office space. It was decided that since the current office space is fully occupied it would be safer to leave things as they are rather than take the risk on new offices and tenants.

London commercial property wins refurbished office award.

The Angel Building has won the Refurbished/Recycled Workplace award from BCO. The award was given to the building’s developers after their successful work transforming the building from its original state in the 1980s.

The offices are located in Clerkenwell and have long been considered one of London’s finest workplaces. The awards were given out last week during an event at the Marriott Grosvenor Square. Various offices across London and the South East were judged to find the best workspaces in the area with the Angel Building scooping the best Recycled/Refurbished award.

Prior to the revamp the offices featured old fashioned 80s designs and inefficient energy solutions. Now the building maximises space and light whilst featuring greenery at street level and a modern roof terrace.

The property was designed by AHMM architects and is currently the largest redevelopment Derwent London has ever completed. The offices were opened in October last year and supply 263,000 square feet of quality office space.

Derwent London have managed to lease out most of the space within the Angel Building which is now almost at full occupancy. Recent deals include NG Bailey, who will take 17,000 square feet on the third floor, and Expedia who have leased 80,000 square feet of office space within the property.

The firm had identified a significant gap in the London market in its interim results and have confirmed that two office blocks, bringing over 300,000 sq ft of grade A office space, will be developed.

A mixed-use development on Hampstead Road, Euston, will measure approximately 265,000 sq ft and begin construction in Q2-Q3 2011. Derwent will shortly be sumbmitting a planning application for the property.

The firm also plan to re-develop the Old Turnmills nightclub based in Clerkenwell, which had previously been refused planning permission. The new-build scheme will bring a further 65,000 sq ft of office space to the capital. Another planning application will be submitted in 2011.

Derwent have also reported sustained growth in their property portfolio to £2.15 billion, quelling fears that there would be a slump in real estate.

Chief executive of Derwent, John Burns, said, “The defensive qualities of the central London office market remain sound,” he said in a statement. The group remains in excellent financial health and we are well placed to make the most of future opportunities.”

The firm, who owns office property in the City and West End areas of London, announced a 9.8% rise in the value of its property portfolio over the last half of 2009. The figures partly offset the 12.3% drop in the first half of 2009, which left the portfolio down 3.3% for the whole of 2009. Derwent had previously reported losses of £34.9 million for 2009, which was an improvement on the £606.5 million in 2008. Property values in 2008 had also dropped by 22.1%.

However Derwent London’s chief executive, John Burns, believes the pick -up in business again is due to the West End being a “sweet spot” in the office space market in comparison with other areas of the UK which are still struggling after the recession. He commented “London is doing well but it is almost two countries. We know there is a lot of trouble out of town,

“The first half was extremely bad for everybody but the second half has seen a strong clawback. It was a year of two halves.”

They plan to take even further advantage of the upturn with the refurbishment and new development of five new projects in the capital over the next two years at least.

Other property firms and landlords have reported similar activity in the area, proving that these areas are good places to focus business on in the office space industry.