LONDON ESTATE Adam Wiles PROPERTY DIRECTOR
T
he London estate is centred on Cecil Court and manages properties around Leicester Square, Charing Cross Road and St Martins Lane. Outside the historic core Estate, there are other individual buildings located elsewhere in the borough of Westminster. The management of the properties was taken back in-house’ in 2003 after being managed by external agents for the preceding 50 years. Since 2003 we have been on a continuous programme of reinvestment and improvement. Last year was one of the busiest on record and until Covid struck footfall and business in the West End was at record-breaking levels. In 2019, we began one of the estate’s largest ever building projects at Brock House, which is an outlying property on Great Portland Street W1. This is a major refurbishment and roof extension of a six-floor office building that is a relatively rare “island site”. Gascoyne’s work has been completed, and the tenant is now fitting out the 30,000 sq. ft. net (40,000 sq. ft. gross) space. This is one of only two major projects across the Group that was not put on hold in March and construction continued throughout the Covid lockdown. All work should be completed and the tenant in occupation by February 2021. Since the onset of Covid our corner of London has felt like a war-zone and although we saw a small recovery in the Summer, it looks as though we are in for a long and difficult winter. A significant percentage of our commercial tenants depend on the tourist and hospitality sector and when lockdown was first imposed footfall fell by over 90%. This had a disastrous impact on our tenants. Since the initial lockdown trading has improved, but is still at an historically low level. Thankfully, over the years we have
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The new look Cecil Court
got to know our tenants well and the trust that we have established is helping us get through a challenge that is of a magnitude and duration that none of us has ever experienced. Our priority today is to work with our tenants, to nurse them through the crisis in the firm belief that London will recover but sadly many businesses have already failed and we fear there are more to come. There will undoubtedly be future beyond Covid as everything that makes London a great City is still in place. Despite the relentlessly bad news, we are seeing some signs of our tenants looking beyond the pandemic and making plans for the future. Three significant commercial lettings should conclude in Oct/Nov, and the current vacancy rate for the Estate is still extremely low.
Most of our commercial tenants depend on the tourist and hospitality sector and since lockdown was first imposed footfall has fallen by over 90%.
