AshbyCapital and Exemplar have pre-let the top three floors of The Avenue, their office and retail development on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Tottenham Court Road in London’s West End, to global travel technology company Skyscanner.
The 24,000 sq ft letting demonstrates the continued evolution of Tottenham Court Road as occupiers look to benefit from both Crossrail and the major public realm improvements currently underway.
The Avenue, which provides 71,000 sq ft of office space and 14,000 sq ft of retail space, will complete on programme in March 2017.
Located 100m from the new Crossrail entrance, occupiers of the building are set to benefit not only from the additional transport connections offered by Crossrail, but also the significant wider regeneration including the £40m West End Project which is currently underway. This includes the creation of a new car-free boulevard down Tottenham Court Road, wider footpaths, a new pocket park directly outside The Avenue, and a major new park immediately behind Tottenham Court Road at Alfred Place.
Following the letting to Skyscanner, 47,000 sq ft remains at the building, set over four contiguous floors, which is being marketed by joint agents CBRE and Savills.
Michael Bucknell, Development Director at Exemplar, said: “We purposefully invest in the design and quality of our buildings to attract occupiers of Skyscanner’s calibre, so we are delighted to welcome them as our first major pre-let at The Avenue. The quality of the building, together with the arrival of Crossrail and the West End Project improvements, has generated an increasing level of interest from occupiers from a range of sectors who can appreciate that what is happening here is very special.”
“The appeal of The Avenue to forward-thinking businesses is clear: this is an impressive new building in an area set to become the heart of London’s West End. With exceptional bars, restaurants and shopping, as well as strong and improving transport connections, this is a fantastic location for business. With Facebook, Estee Lauder, Freud Communications and NBC Universal all choosing the area around Tottenham Court Road to base their businesses, Skyscanner will be in good company.
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Bryan Dove, Chief Technology Officer at Skyscanner, said: “As a leading travel search company, Skyscanner continues to recruit at pace. We’ve seen our London headcount grow five-fold in just a year and anticipate recruiting 100 more employees in the capital in 2017. The new office space at The Avenue provides us with an extremely central location from which we can continue to expand our operations.”
CBRE and Savills are the office agents for The Avenue; JLL acted for Skyscanner.