Dyson’s Weybourne hoovers up Kontor leasing deal
James Dyson’s family office, Weybourne Group, has signed boutique agency Kontor for its HQ move to Fitzrovia, W1.
Kontor will take a floor measuring 1,900 sq ft at Percy House, 33 Gresse Street. The workspace will be almost double the size of the agency’s previous premises. The firm will also pay nearly double the rent, at around £85 per sq ft.
The decision marks a return to a permanent base as well as a move from East to West London for the agency, which was previously headquartered in Shoreditch at 37-42 Charlotte Street, EC2. It will move into the new space this month after a year of flexible working from TOG’s Liberty House hub in Regent Street, W1.
James Dyson’s family office, Weybourne Group, has signed boutique agency Kontor for its HQ move to Fitzrovia, W1.
Kontor will take a floor measuring 1,900 sq ft at Percy House, 33 Gresse Street. The workspace will be almost double the size of the agency’s previous premises. The firm will also pay nearly double the rent, at around £85 per sq ft.
The decision marks a return to a permanent base as well as a move from East to West London for the agency, which was previously headquartered in Shoreditch at 37-42 Charlotte Street, EC2. It will move into the new space this month after a year of flexible working from TOG’s Liberty House hub in Regent Street, W1.
James Townsend, co-founder of Kontor, said the move was “a significant step up in terms of costs for us, but we’re really committing to this market and where our clients want to be, so we’re happy to hang our hat on it for five years and make our home.”
Townsend added that after trialling the location while based at Liberty House, the firm found the area to be “much more efficient” as it had more face time with clients, so the agency “bit the bullet” and made the move.
“We’ve got a lot of clients focusing on the West End, specifically Fitzrovia and Mayfair and then Kings Cross and Southbank,” said Townsend. “A lot of brokers were spending a whole day on the Central line going back and forth between Shoreditch and those markets.
“So, we decided [to] try and take space in the West End and see how it went. And we found that more people wanted to come into the office [for the day], as well as after viewings, and people were spending more time in the office interacting with the team.”
Weybourne Group is a subsidiary of Weybourne Holdings. The group is headquartered in Singapore, but Dyson himself changed his main address back to the UK last year.
Edward Charles acted for the landlord and Kontor dealt direct. Weybourne and Edward Charles did not respond to requests for comment.
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