Sainsbury’s is nearing a deal to move to a new London headquarters in the City fringe.
The supermarket group is set to take around 70,000 sq ft across three floors in Helical and Ashby Capital’s JJ Mack Building, EC1.
The company will move staff from Tishman Speyer’s 33 Holborn, EC1, in favour of a smaller footprint in the ESG-friendly building next to Farringdon station.
Asking rents for the JJ Mack Building are above £80 per sq ft.
Other tenants in the 200,000-plus sq ft building include global private markets firm Partners Group, which signed for 37,880 sq ft across floors six and seven in November 2022.
Sainsbury’s moved into its current HQ in 2001, outbidding Goldman Sachs for the space. The 320,000 sq ft Holborn Place was formerly occupied by Mirror Group Newspapers. Sainsbury’s has since sublet much of the building and currently occupies 100,000 sq ft, with a Sainsbury’s store on the ground floor.
The retail group has long considered a move away from Holborn Place and came close to preletting a new headquarters at Argent’s King’s Cross scheme in 2009.
Tishman Speyer bought the long leasehold of Holborn Place for its European Core Fund in April 2014 for £311m. The building was put on the market three months earlier by German open-ended fund manager Union Investments for £300m.
Cushman & Wakefield is acting for Sainsbury’s. Helical and C&W declined to comment.
To send feedback, e-mail chante.bohitige@eg.co.uk or tweet @bohitige
