General Projects and British Airways Pension Fund have acquired the long leasehold interest in Waterfront Studios for £16.2m.
The 117,000 sq ft serviced office and industrial complex in the Royal Docks is home to 162 independent businesses across a range of offices, studios and light-industrial workshops.
The property was built by GLE Properties, the property and regeneration division of Greater London Enterprise, in 2003 and sits beneath the Silvertown flyover.
Located in the Royal Docks, adjacent to the Siemens Crystal and the Emirates Airline, the property sits in the middle of a comprehensive regeneration zone with the future Silvertown Tunnel, Crossrail and the 7,000 unit Silvertown Homes development.
General Projects will be reinventing and relaunching the space as a new flexible workspace hub which the company will operate directly. The project will be rebranded as ‘Expressway’, a nod to the flyover, the first ever built in the UK, which sits above it.
East London based designers Architecture 00 has been appointed to develop a new look and feel for the workspace which will incorporate new amenities including a co-working and events space, café and deli. The scheme also includes more than 60,000 sq ft of industrial workshop units which will be refurbished to target local makers, designers, fabricators and manufacturers.
Jacob Loftus of General Projects said: “Waterfront has been a successful business centre and industrial complex for over 15 years. However, with the changes under way in the local area, there is now an exciting opportunity to modernise and reposition the centre as a leading design-led, service-driven, workspace hub, that is also genuinely affordable for SME businesses in London.”
Charles Curtis of Finn & Co advised the buyer and JLL advised the seller.
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