The Flingeran Center

British Land Co. owns a huge amount of commercial space in London’s Ropemaker Place and they have leased approximately 217,000 sq. ft to Macquarie Group - the largest investment bank in Australia.

Andrew Hunt, heads the European business section for Macquarie Group and he stated publicly that 1000 of Macquarie employees will be working from this location. In his statement Mr. Hunt did not mention the term for which the lease was signed nor did he mention the rate at which the lease was closed at. One thing we are aware of is that the Macquarie Group’s current lease at Citipoint ends sometime next year.

Any business that requires more that 200,000 sq. ft of commercial property in the city of London is going to face an issue due to the lack of available deskspace in the city. This has lead to a huge hike in the price of rent as well as property. This is not the only issue that London is dealing with. Not many buildings are scheduled to be complete in the next two years. Thus the city is facing a huge London office space crisis.

There was some speculation of Macquarie Group acquiring an office space in Drapers Garden however BlackRock Inc. acquired the entire building some time this month.

The Chief Executive Officer of British Land stated that there was approximately only 20% office space in Ropemarker Place available for lease. Besides Macquarie Group; Mitsubishi UFJ Securities and Bank of Toyota-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd acquired 230,000 sq ft.

A year ago, Nomura Holdings transferred close to 4000 employees to Watermark Place from the Canary Wharf District.