LaSalle Investment Management (“LaSalle”), the global real estate investment manager, has created a partnership with Trilogy Property Advisers (“Trilogy”) to acquire East India Dock in London, United Kingdom, from Criterion for £170 million through a Jersey Property Unit Trust (“JPUT”). The JPUT will be managed by LaSalle and Trilogy.
Built in 1993, East India Dock is a 593,233 square feet office campus with retail and leisure amenities and 471 car parking spaces that is situated on a prominent 6.4-acre island site in the London Docklands. It is comprised of four office buildings with a maximum height of nine storeys that vary in size from 64,513 to 218,306 square feet. The floorplates across each building range from 13,000 to 28,000 square feet and benefit from natural light and attractive views across London.
Whilst existing plans for the site included a comprehensive redevelopment for residential use, LaSalle and Trilogy will refurbish and reposition East India Dock as a viable alternative for occupiers priced out of traditional office locations. High quality office space will be provided at competitive rental values from £30 per square foot with best in class amenities to support the new workforce. LaSalle and Trilogy have not ruled out the inclusion of residential within the site’s overall mix.
East India Dock is well-connected for public transport, which supports the new vision for the site. It is a three-minute walk via a connecting footbridge to East India DLR station, which offers connections to the City in under 15 minutes and the West End in around 20 minutes. Cycle Superhighway 3, which runs from Barking to Tower Gateway, boarders the site and it is just an eight minute car journey to London City Airport. East India Dock will also benefit from the introduction of Crossrail to the Docklands in 2018, which will create a more mobile workforce across London.
Chris Lewis, Head of Transaction Support, LaSalle Investment Management, said: “East India Dock is an exceptional opportunity to create a vibrant new business quarter in a well-connected part of London. It is in the heart of an area undergoing a significant transformation with new residential developments and the impending introduction of Crossrail drawing people to the neighbourhood. We want to provide a viable alternative for occupiers priced out of more traditional business locations and previously affordable hubs, such as Shoreditch. We are pleased to be working with the experienced team at Trilogy to deliver this vision.”
Robert Wolstenholme, Managing Director, Trilogy Property Advisers, said: "This property provides a great platform for Trilogy to apply the experience gained with creative office developments in Soho, Shoreditch and Whitechapel to deliver a new East London quarter for creative talent. The eastward migration of the creative and digital sectors, like the English National Ballet's move to London City Island or the Here East scheme at the Olympic park, is reinventing areas like Stratford and Canning Town. We're talking to some top creative, cultural and tech occupiers, who would be catalysts for the emergence of a new hub for next-generation talent at East India Dock."
East India Dock is currently multi-let to a variety of office tenants with a current passing rent of around £20 per square foot and a weighted average unexpired lease term of under three years.
LaSalle was advised by Allsop and Hall Kemp; Criterion by Savills and Michael Elliot.
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