9500ft2 acquired in Kingdom St, Paddington, London W2 & 5300ft2 in Clerkenwell, London EC1 for major global communications organisation
The Background
In 2018 we acquired a 2000ft2 prestigious fitted office in Kingdom Street, Paddington Central for BAI Communications, one of the world’s leading developers of shared communications infrastructure.
Four years later due to rapid UK expansion, their space requirements changed when they were awarded a 20 year concession by Transport For London to develop and provide high speed mobile coverage across the London Underground network. New 4G-enabled and 5G-ready coverage will ultimately enable passengers to use personal devices such as phones, laptops and iPads while travelling on the tube.
The Brief
Our instructions were to identify much larger fitted office space in Paddington, close to their existing premises. We were also asked to identify data centres in strategic locations in London for development and servicing of the Tube’s new full mobile coverage network.
The Challenge
It was hard to find top quality bespoke office space fitted out to satisfy specific requirements right in the core of Paddington Central. And on some levels it was more of a challenge to find relatively small spaces capable of being converted into data centres in Central London.
The Outcome
Off market, we approached British Land, one of the UK’s largest property companies, as they have significant holdings in Paddington. As a result of this, we sourced 2 fantastic floors comprising approx 9500ft2 in a building adjacent to their existing offices in Kingdom Street. We went on to agree a deal for the Landlords to fit out the office floors to satisfy the exact space requirements.
In addition and using extensive contacts, we identified a building in Clerkenwell which had the potential to satisfy one of BAI’s data centre requirements. Despite a number of hurdles along the way, planning permission was obtained to convert the basement of approx 3500ft2 into a data centre. To support this centre, a further office floor of approx 1800ft2 was taken in the same building.
The Location
BAI Communications can be found at 2nd floor, 2 Kingdom St, London W2 6BD
What BAI Communications said...
BAI Communications
After finding our ideal offices in 2018, we knew Stephen would be our first call when we needed to upscale again. He was tasked to acquire a significantly larger office in a very short timescale plus some data centres and as he did in 2018, managed the whole process extremely well. He has delivered again and we are very happy with the final outcome.
Billy D'Arcy
Excellent negotiation skills – we got exactly the office we wanted.
Ellwood and Atfield Ltd
