Morgan Stanley International, one of the American banks in the Canary Wharf consortium, have taken Kingsley House, Heron Corporation’s 60,000-sq ft building at 1 Wimpole Street, W1.
The bank are currently housed in the Commercial Union Building at 1 Undershaft, and will be moving their equity, fixed income and investment banking departments to Kingsley House later in the year.
According to Archibald Cox, who heads Morgan Stanley’s London office, the bank are still firmly behind the Canary Wharf project. “Although we fully intend to build our own facility at Canary Wharf as soon as possible, we must meet our immediate need for additional space”, he says. A dealing floor will be put into Kingsley House.
Morgan Stanley are paying a rent of about £1.4m pa for the building. The 15-year lease gives them the right to sublet or assign, but does not include a break clause like the one negotiated by Salomon Brothers on Victoria Plaza.
