McKay Securities has confirmed its letting of its speculative Reading scheme to Regus’s Spaces concept.
Spaces has taken the entirety of the 39,620 sq ft 9 Greyfriars Road on a 15-year lease term, with a tenant break option after 10 years.
The deal will provide Spaces’ eighth location in the UK, and its first in Reading, since entering the UK market in 2015.
McKay acquired 9 Greyfriars Road vacant in an off-market deal in 2014, using proceeds from a £86.7m capital raising drive.
Richard Morris, Spaces’ UK chief executive, said: “We see an increasing demand and interest for community-based working and co-working in Reading and we strongly believe that the market is open to receive what we have to offer.”
Simon Perkins, chief executive of McKay, said: “The back-to-frame refurbishment has transformed it from an obsolete edifice to an award-winning investment with the highest sustainability credentials, fully realising its potential.
“Our team has exceeded itself, and played an important role in the generation of shareholder value.
“This lease to Spaces releases 20% of our development void reversion and reduces our letting exposure. It also crystallises a significant proportion of the £9.26m pa reversion that we have strategically built up within our portfolio and will add to the 43% increase in contracted rents and a 69% increase in portfolio value that we have already achieved since our 2014 capital raising.”
Strutt & Parker and Campbell Gordon acted on behalf of McKay.
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