The John Lewis Partnership, an employee-owned British retail group, has lined up a total of 36,500 sq ft of offices in Victoria as it plans for relocation in the capital later this year.
Land Securities, the property investment and development giant, announced details of the deal that takes occupancy levels at its 123 Victoria Street offices up to 78 per cent.
John Lewis’ business includes 30 large-scale department stores that carry the John Lewis name, a further nine John Lewis homeware outlets and more than 250 Waitrose supermarkets across the UK. The partnership has said it will relocate London-based office staff to the second and third floors of 123 Victoria Street during the third quarter of 2013.
In signing up to occupy offices at Land Securities’ West End office site, John Lewis joins the fashion house and shoe designer Jimmy Choo and the American IT software company Intuit. Another firm to sign up to the offices at Victoria Street recently is CPA Global, which agreed to take 12,600 sq ft and use the site as its official operating headquarters after relocating from Olivers Yard in East London.
“I am delighted to welcome John Lewis to 123 Victoria Street who join Jimmy Choo, Bally, CPA Global, Intuit and CDC Group in the building,” said Adrian Crooks, Land Securities’ leasing director, on announcing news of the retailer’s commitment.
The 123 Victoria Street site that attracted the John Lewis Partnership and others in recent months is not the only Land Securities office development in the Westminster borough in London, or indeed on Victoria Street. The company announced earlier this month that the commodity-oriented Klesch Group and the energy firm KPI Bridge Oil had both signed up to lease offices at 80 Victoria Street, where EDF Energy and Microsoft had already done the same.
Editor’s notes: Other occupiers at 123 Victoria Street include Landsec’s flexible workspace brand Myo that offers various alternatives to renting office space in London via a conventional lease including flexible serviced offices and corporate coworking passes.
These solutions are relatively less onerous than a lease, are held on shorter term licences and the rent is inclusive of utilities, service charge, cleaning and other overheads.