Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has completed an 80,000 sq ft letting to investment manager BlackRock at its 120,000 sq ft Exchange Place 1 scheme in Edinburgh’s Fountainbridge area.
BlackRock has signed a 15-year lease for an undisclosed rent. Rents in the building are understood to be around £26-£27 per sq ft.
BlackRock will relocate from its office at 40 Torphichen Street, where it has 40,000 sq ft of space, by late 2013.
The deal leaves 15,000 sq ft available within Exchange Place 1.
Nigel Bolton, managing director and head of BlackRock in Scotland, commented: “The location, quality and terms available to us at Exchange Place will allow BlackRock to leverage the firm’s global expertise and breadth of product offerings to best serve clients and their advisers locally.”
Darryl Tidd, fund manager at SWIP, added: “This is an important letting for SWIP as Exchange Place is our largest office development in Scotland. We worked hard to deliver commercial terms that fulfilled BlackRock’s business requirements whilst also meeting our client’s targets and objectives.”
CBRE acted for BlackRock. Cushman & Wakefield, Jones Lang LaSalle and CuthbertWhite advised SWIP.
daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com
