Ares Management is near to taking the first office prelet at the Crown Estate’s and ?Exemplar’s 10 New Burlington Street, W1, to accommodate its mass expansion plans.
The US asset management group is understood to have gone under offer for a 30,000 sq ft headquarters at the Allford Hall Monahan Morris-designed 190,000 sq ft development.
It will be the first office letting at the scheme, which is due to complete next spring. A rent in excess of £100 per sq ft is understood to have been agreed.
The first tenant signed for space is retailer J Crew, which in September 2012 agreed to take a ground floor store for its ?European debut.
The letting to Ares comes as the company works up plans to become a major player in the UK real estate market.
Earlier this year, the US firm swooped to buy AREA Properties Partners, taking on its circa $6bn (£3.8bn) of North Am-erican and European real estate assets.
It is also through to the second round of bidding to buy Deutsche Postbank’s €1.9bn (£1.6bn) predominantly UK real estate loan book, Project Tower, in conjunction with Citi Bank.
One West End agent said: “Ares missed out narrowly on offices at Devonshire House in Mayfair, where a number of financial ?companies were competing for space, but 10 New Burlington Street provides it with a large amount of space in what is going to be an attractive and significant building for the West End.”
The firm appointed Studley earlier this year to look for a 20,000 sq ft office close to the Mayfair hedge fund heartland. It was seeking to relocate from 22,000 sq ft at the Gherkin, EC3.
Los Angeles-based Ares has around $60bn of assets under management globally. Prior to its AREA buy, just $2bn of that was in property.
CBRE is letting agent on 10 New Burlington Street.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
