Canary Wharf is close to signing up Tesco for a 13,000-sq ft Metro store at Cabot Place in London’s Docklands.
News of the Tesco move emerged as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products confirmed that it is taking 45,000 sq ft of offices at 7 Westferry Circus. It will move in later this year and expand into around 65,000 sq ft by the end of 1998.
Market estimates put the rent at about £16 per sq ft plus generous incentives for the offices, while shop rents in the project are likely to be on a turnover-only basis.
Last month Canary Wharf announced that it had let eight shops. The massive office project lost its sole blue-chip retail tenant in February when Marks & Spencer pulled out of an agreement to open a food store. At the time, an M&S spokesman said that the short-term customer base would not be sufficient to make a food hall viable. Erdman Lewis acted for the agency.
