Two more prestigious high-profile businesses are quitting central London’s high rents and rates to set up shop at East India Dock’s newly-refurbished Republic campus in Blackwall.
Lebara Mobile telecoms and Pure Gym are set to move to the work space campus which aims to draw companies priced out of the City.
Lebara is taking 15,000sq ft as its UK headquarters, relocating 200 staff from Moorgate.
Pure Gym, Britain’s largest gymnasium network, has taken 14,200sq ft on two floors as a state-of-the-art workout, opening later this summer.
The lettings were announced last night by Trilogy Real Estate and LaSalle investments, in a move to entice businesses priced out of central London.
Tenants already signed up include The Gentlemen Baristas for its fourth café with a 3,100sq ft deal including a coffee roastery. The Horticulture restaurant chain is also moving in with 2,900sq ft, including an on-site market garden.
Threepipe digital agency shifted 80 staff from Covent Garden, taking 6,000sq ft.
“Ridiculous rents and rates forced us to look elsewhere,” co-founder Jim Hawker said at the time. “We have flexibility here to spend our hard earned money on things other than rent and rates.”
Hadley accountancy took 1,000sq ft on the eighth floor earlier this year. Deliveroo’s East London recruitment hub has also set up shop.
Trilogy Real Estate wants to stem the tide of start-up companies quitting London by offering 600,000 square feet of low-rent workplace.
It has transformed the ‘first-generation’ Docklands office block, known previously as Anchorage House that was used by Tower Hamlets Council as a town hall annex. The building was put up in the 1990s on the site of the old India and Millwall Docks that closed more than a decade before.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here