Hammerson is close to agreeing a move from its Park Lane headquarters of 35 years to its Mayfair joint venture scheme with Grosvenor.
The quoted developer will be trading its £14 per sq ft building at 100 Park Lane, W1, for the remaining 42,000 sq ft at 10 Grosvenor Street, W1, which achieved £80 per sq ft a year ago (10 May 2004).
Associated British Foods took around 15,000 sq ft on the fourth and fifth floors. Hammerson is likely to pay closer to £70 per sq ft for the rest of the building.
Sources said the decision would displace a number of other potential tenants, who were negotiating smaller deals. “Despite a reasonably lengthy period since the last letting, a high level of interest has been shown in the building recently as market activity in the West End has increased,” said one.
The Rolfe Judd-designed scheme is opposite Grosvenor’s own headquarters and next door to Drivers Jonas’s head office.
If the deal is completed, it will mean that Hammerson can press ahead with plans to dispose of its Grade II listed Park Lane premises, where Grosvenor owns the freehold. Hammerson is close to an agreement with Grosvenor to extend its lease at 100 Park Lane, which has 30 years remaining, so that it can be sold as a single family home.
Westminster gave consent for the conversion in July 2003. An application for an office refurbishment was also approved.
Hammerson had previously considered a move to another of its own schemes, 19 Hanover Square, W1. But the building is at the centre of a predefined work site for the east-west London rail line, Crossrail.
A Grosvenor spokesman said: “We are in discussion but there is some way to go.”
Hammerson refused to comment, but last year a spokesman said: “The gross-to-net office space here is not good and we are full to capacity.”
