University challenge: schools hunt for 500,000 sq ft in London
Universities are searching for close to 500,000 sq ft of space in London, a potential boon to agents struggling to find traditional occupiers for workspace.
Cushman & Wakefield is tracking some 465,000 sq ft of active or upcoming requirements in central London across 14 institutions.
The largest on the list is from the University of Law, for 100,000 sq ft, in a search being run by James Andrew International. The university has campuses in Bloomsbury and Moorgate.
Universities are searching for close to 500,000 sq ft of space in London, a potential boon to agents struggling to find traditional occupiers for workspace.
Cushman & Wakefield is tracking some 465,000 sq ft of active or upcoming requirements in central London across 14 institutions.
The largest on the list is from the University of Law, for 100,000 sq ft, in a search being run by James Andrew International. The university has campuses in Bloomsbury and Moorgate.
Arden University had been searching for 50,000 sq ft via Knight Frank in a requirement that Cushman said “may reactivate” this year, while Pearson College is looking for the same amount of space, guided by CBRE.
Also in the market are SAE Institute and Queens College London, each looking for 25,000 sq ft. Other searches have been launched by Melbourne Institute of Technology, Intouini, Lloyds Maritime Academy, Coventry University and more.
Cushman delved into the requirements in documents lodged to support a change-of-use application for CLS Holdings’ Artesian office scheme in Aldgate, E1.
Joint leasing agents Cushman and Compton have struggled to attract occupiers to the building and the owner is now trying for a second time to change its use class to a hybrid of office and higher education. A first attempt was rejected owing to the loss of office space.
“Obtaining dual office/educational use speculatively would put 9 Prescot Street ahead of other competing schemes in central London as applying for change of use following the agreement of terms represents one of the key risks for educational users acquiring office space,” said Cushman partner James Campbell in the marketing report, adding: “If Artesian benefited from an educational use, the building would be occupied by now.”
