Construction to commence this month after 黑洞社区 publisher UBM signs lease

Construction of the 拢70m office scheme for 240 Blackfriars Road, London will commence this month after 黑洞社区鈥檚 publisher, UBM, today confirmed it will sign a 15-year lease for the new building.

The 20-storey building, being developed by a joint venture between Great Portland Estates and Ropemaker Properties, has been designed by architect Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and will provide 237,000 ft2 of space, including 223,000 ft2 of offices, a small amount of retail and ten private apartments in an adjacent building.

UBM has signed up to 105,648 ft2 of the building, paying 拢4.9m a year with a hree-year rent-free period, taking the top nine floors. UBM will itself fit out the building, receiving a 拢6m contribution from Great Portland Estates to take it from shell condition to category 鈥淎鈥 fit-out.

Jackson Coles is project managing the scheme, with AKT II structural engineers and Hilson Moran services engineers.

Neil Thompson, portfolio director of GPE said, 鈥240 Blackfriars Road will be a prominent, high quality building of outstanding design which will help to continue the regeneration of this part of the Southbank. We look forward to working with UBM to build for them a world class UK headquarters building.鈥

Richard Bowers, head of estate management at UBM said 鈥 We look forward to occupying such a prominent and impressive landmark building, which we intend to fit out to a high standard to create a vibrant collaborative and productive environment maintaining our long term future to this location.鈥