Landmark office acquisition at Exchange Place

Leading property consultant CBRE has announced the completion of a landmark acquisition at SWIP’s (acting on behalf of SW plc) Grade A office development Exchange Place 1 in Edinburgh on behalf of global investment manager BlackRock.  

BlackRock has taken part of the 1^st floor and the entire 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th floors, comprising approximately 80,000 sq ft on a new institutional lease.   The firm will relocate from its current office at40 Torphichen Street, where it has 40,000 sq ft of space, to Exchange Place 1 by late 2013 in order to increase presence in the capital.  The deal means BlackRock will become the principal occupier at the property, and represents the largest city centre office letting of a speculative development since 2003. 

Nigel Bolton, Managing Director, Head of BlackRock inScotlandand Head of European Equities, commented:  “We are pleased to announce our long term commitment toEdinburghand look forward to relocating to Exchange Place 1.  The location, quality and terms available to us atExchange Placewill allow BlackRock to leverage the firm’s global expertise and breadth of product offerings to best serve clients and their advisers locally.”

Stewart Taylor, director at CBRE, representing BlackRock, commented:  “The acquisition of Exchange Place 1 follows a rigorous appraisal of theEdinburghoffice market by BlackRock over the past nine months.  We have worked closely with the BlackRock and CBRE teams inNew York,LondonandEdinburghto ensure that the building ultimately selected exceeded the demanding property and economic criteria.  

“BlackRock was aware of the likely future shortage of Grade A accommodation inEdinburghand moved early to consider the options.  The firm has worked closely with SWIP this year to agree a transaction that is unlikely to be bettered in the current cycle.  The end result is a great example of how our global reach allows us to provide a comprehensive service to international clients.”

Darryl Tidd, Fund Manager at SWIP added: “This is an important letting for SWIP as Exchange Place is our largest office development in Scotland.  We worked hard to deliver commercial terms that fulfilled BlackRock’s business requirements whilst also meeting our client’s targets and objectives.”

Exchange Place 1 is located in Edinburgh’s principal business district and is home to some of the world’s best known financial services organisations. BlackRock will join other high quality tenants atExchange Placeincluding Hymans Robertson, Wood Mackenzie, Scott Moncrieff, Alexander Forbes and 4Sight Financial Software.

Angela Lowe, Partner at Cushman & Wakefield, who advised SWIP on the letting, commented: “Exchange Place 1 was designed as a headquarters building and was specified to accommodate the requirements of large occupiers.  The quality of the building and its specification was an important factor in securing BlackRock.  This letting also reinforces the Exchange District as the location of choice for financial occupiers.”

With only 15,000 sq ft available in Exchange Place 1, the development is close to being fully let.

BlackRock was represented by CBRE and advised by Shepherd & Wedderburn; and Cushman and Wakefield acted for SWIP.  Jones Lang LaSalle and CuthbertWhite are joint letting agents on the development, along with Cushman & Wakefield.