Morgan Pryce recently acquired office space in the heart of Westminster for a newly developed financial business. The client came to Morgan Pryce seeking an extremely specific office requirement; having searched themselves for several weeks they unfortunately came to a number of dead ends due to the specific nature of their requirement. They were hoping to aquire office space broken up into four large rooms and a smaller meeting room for a budget of no more than £45 per square foot exclusive.

The space itself was the most important requirement; they wanted something slightly different from the traditional conventional office space the rest of the financial sector was after. They were looking for a more period and traditional feel to their space, preferably a townhouse or a listed building. Not an easy requirement in such a tight market. 

Tom Lax from Morgan Pryce said, “The first obstacle was finding enough options that have cellular floor plates for them to view. Unfortunately the modern-day floor plate is left completely open plan, with everyone working in an large open space with a couple of meeting rooms partitioned off: the cellular format is extremely dated and hard to come across”.

We did however manage to find one suitable option in Westminster which was a superb listed building broken into four large rooms. Because of the listed nature of the building it has not been possible to knock down any walls within the floors, therefore the cellular nature of the floor has been kept.

The deal itself was reasonably straightforward due as the upper floor has been let so recently – although this did make negotiations much tougher. However, our client agreed to taking a straight five-year term so we were able to negotiate seven months’ rent free and £2.50 off the rent. 

Morgan Pryce is a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.