New businesses trying to escape exorbitant rents in the City and West End are singing contracts for the “next generation” of east London’s Docklands rejuvenation.
The refurbished Republic complex under way at the Anchorage House office tower, once occupied by Tower Hamlets Council in Blackwall’s Clove Crescent, is already filling up with tenancies ready for its big launch in May.
Threepipe digital agency, with Nike, the England Cricket Board and Sweaty Betty for clients, has shifted its 80 staff from Covent Garden to the campus, taking 6,000sq ft of space.
“Ridiculous rents and rates have forced us to look elsewhere,” co-founder Jim Hawker said.
“We have flexibility here to spend our hard earned money on things other than rent and rates.”
The Gentlemen Baristas is opening at the complex with its fourth café in a deal for 3,100sq ft including a coffee roastery.
The Horticulture restaurant chain is coming in the spring with a 2,900sq ft deal to source food locally, including an on-site market garden.
Hadley accountancy firm has already taken 1,000sq ft on the eighth floor.
Deliveroo’s East London recruitment hub has also set up shop.
Trilogy Real Estate’s Robert Wolstenholme said: “We are attracting young businesses priced out of central London with lettings for a new creative neighbourhood when the building is fully functioning in May.”
Anchorage House, with the East India Dock on one side and town hall on the other, aims to stem the tide of start-ups quitting London with 600,000 square feet of low-rent workplace.
It is transforming the existing ‘first-generation’ Docklands development put up in the 1990s, more than a decade after the old India and Millwall Docks closed.
The business campus is close to the Thames waterfront and seemingly within touching distance of the 02 on the other side of the river.
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