LONDON, 18 January: Oxford Properties, the global real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), and Brockton Capital have secured the first major pre-letting at The Post Building, with the global management consultants McKinsey & Company (“McKinsey”) committing to take 100,000 sq ft (with an option to take up to 130,000 sq ft).
The Post Building is a 320,000 sq ft, mixed-use, AHMM-designed redevelopment of the former Royal Mail Sorting Office, being developed in a joint venture between Oxford Properties and Brockton Capital. It is located on a prominent island block bordered by New Oxford Street, High Holborn and Museum Street, in the West End of London. Located in the Knowledge Quarter, it is broadly equidistant between The British Museum to the north, Holborn tube station to the east, Covent Garden and The Royal Opera House to the south and Google’s current European headquarters at St Giles’s Circus and the new Crossrail Station at Tottenham Court Road, to the west.
The pre-letting to McKinsey, ahead of the building’s arrival in summer 2018, marks the first major occupier to commit to The Post Building. McKinsey has offices in 140 locations in 62 countries worldwide, with more than 10,000 consultants, serving the world’s leading organisations in the private, public and social sectors. The London office of McKinsey was opened in 1959. It was their first office outside the United States.
The Post Building will set a new benchmark amongst London’s most inspiring workplaces. Comprising around 270,000 sq ft of offices and utilising the unique volume of the existing property (originally built in the 1960’s as a Royal Mail sorting office), the office space will incorporate one-acre floorplates; natural light from all sides; private roof terraces to every floor; a 7,000 sq ft rooftop garden with 360 degree views; floor to ceiling heights of up to six metres; and carefully curated retail, food and beverage amenities – all combined with the latest in world-class technology, design and sustainability. At lower ground floor level, 470 cycle spaces will be provided, alongside first class lockers, showers and bike workshop facilities.
McKinsey will benefit from unrivalled transport connectivity, underpinned by the arrival of Crossrail (to be known as the Elizabeth Line) at Tottenham Court Road Station, providing super-fast and super-frequent, Wifi-enabled east-west connections from Reading in the west, through to Heathrow, on to central London and then out to Canary Wharf, Stratford and Essex to the east. Crossrail will be delivered around the same time as The Post Building in 2018 and Tottenham Court Road will be the only station where Crossrail and the proposed Crossrail 2 will intersect.
Vivian Hunt, Managing Partner for UK and Ireland at McKinsey & Company, said, “This is an exciting move for McKinsey in the UK. It represents a renewed commitment to London and the UK, and The Post Building gives us the flexible and modern office space we need for our growing operations and for our people as we continue to serve our clients to the highest standards.”
Paul Brundage, Executive Vice President and Senior Managing Director, Europe at Oxford Properties said: “The Post Building will be a terrific building and we are delighted by McKinsey’s decision to make it their new London headquarters. We have a strong global relationship with McKinsey and this transaction has allowed us to expand that connection in a meaningful way. McKinsey’s move signifies confidence in London’s status as an international gateway, as well as the increased importance of Crossrail-connected, creative hubs as a home for vibrant professional services firms looking to attract and retain top talent.”
David Marks, Co-Managing Partner at Brockton Capital LLP, said: “Following the pre-let to McKinsey, around 140,000 sq ft of office space remains available to lease at The Post Building. The remaining four floors incorporate net floor-to-ceiling heights of between 4.2 metres and 5.5 metres, an average size of 37,000 sq ft, external roof terraces and vast expanses of natural light from all sides, flooding both the double-height main office space as well as the mezzanine decks that hang off the central core. Future occupiers who choose to join McKinsey in relocating to The Post Building will be benefitting from the triple benefits of voluminous, Grade A loft-office space, hyper-connected, Crossrail-anchored transportation and being located at the cultural crossroads of Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, Soho and Fitzrovia.”
McKinsey was advised by CBRE and Olswang; Oxford Properties and Brockton Capital were advised by JLL and Nabarro. JLL, Pilcher Hershman and CBRE are joint leasing agents for the offices; and CBRE and Davis Coffer Lyons are joint leasing agents for the retail and restaurants.