Aspen eyes Twentytwo Bishopsgate space
Insurance company Aspen is close to becoming the first company to commit to AXA IM-Real Assets and Lipton Rogers’ Twentytwo Bishopsgate, EC2.
Aspen is in advanced talks to prelet around 90,000 sq ft at the 62-storey, 1.4m sq ft tower, which will be the City’s tallest building.
Backed by a consortium of investors including British Colombia Investment Management Corporation, PSP and Temasek, the skyscraper is due for completion in 2019.
Insurance company Aspen is close to becoming the first company to commit to AXA IM-Real Assets and Lipton Rogers’ Twentytwo Bishopsgate, EC2.
Aspen is in advanced talks to prelet around 90,000 sq ft at the 62-storey, 1.4m sq ft tower, which will be the City’s tallest building.
Backed by a consortium of investors including British Colombia Investment Management Corporation, PSP and Temasek, the skyscraper is due for completion in 2019.
Aspen currently occupies around 65,000 sq ft at Plantation Place, EC3, on a lease expiring in 2020. Trustees of the late Brazilian billionaire Moise Safra instructed Knight Frank and CBRE earlier this year to seek offers in excess of £700m for the 550,000 sq ft building, which offers the potential for a future tower redevelopment owing to its location in the Eastern Cluster – the area designated by City of London Corporation planners as appropriate for tall buildings.
A deal with Aspen would be a positive start for the developers of 22 Bishopsgate, which was put on hold following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union last year. However, after a short hesitation, the investment partners pushed the green button in October to start construction in what was hailed as a vote of confidence in the future of London post-Brexit.
An AXA-IM spokesman said: “We are engaged in discussions with a number of prospective occupiers and from a range of business sectors that are interested in taking space at Twentytwo, some more progressed than others. Our policy is not to comment on transactions until a contract has been signed.”
While some occupiers have reportedly been slower to make decisions owing to uncertainty around Brexit negotiations, central London’s leasing market has seen a strong start to the year.
Nearly 4.8m sq ft was let in the first two quarters – a 10% increase on the previous year, according to provisional research by Cushman & Wakefield. Just over 2.6m sq ft was let in Q2 2017, which is in line with the five-year quarterly average of 2.7m sq ft – and up by 58% on the same quarter last year.
JLL and Savills advise Aspen; CBRE and JLL are leasing agents on 22 Bishopsgate.
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