Legal & General Investment Management has continued a strong recent lettings run in the South East as it signs American industrial gas supplier Air Products for all of a 78,000-square-foot office in Chertsey in Surrey, CoStar News understands.
Market sources said Air Products is signing for 1000 Hillswood Park in a deal that would see staff moving from Hersham Place Technology Park in Walton-on-Thames, where it occupies a similar amount. The letting will be seen as further evidence of occupier preference for highly sustainable new developments.
L&G appointed Savills and CBRE in May to lease its recently completed "ESG exemplar office refurbishment".
The 1980s building is located in 96 acres of woodland and lakes, and has been regenerated to be EPC A rated and achieve a NABERS UK 5 star rating, which marks a building's operational energy efficiency. That made it one of only 13 developments in the UK to achieve a rating of 5 stars or greater as of January 2023, L&G said in the summer. The company is also targeting a BREAAM rating of Excellent.
The building has remote monitoring of mechanical and electrical systems and central plant, low energy LED lighting, air source heat pumps for heating and cooling, 26 electric vehicle charging points, two electric bike charging points and on-site clean energy generation photovoltaic solar panels. There is also an atrium with a café, meeting spaces, concierge services and an events calendar including networking events, a "bike doctor" and pop up events. Occupiers can also use The Pergola, an outdoor room, for events.
1000 Hillswood Park is a mile from Junction 11 of the M25 motorway.
LGIM has been a standout office landlord in the South East for lettings this year, as the market has seen muted take-up. In November, CoStar News revealed that LGIM had signed tools giant Stanley Black & Decker for a new headquarters building in Maidenhead, in a market-moving transaction for the Thames Valley, with the US tools group understood to be paying a record rent for the region of more than £50 per square feet.
In Woking, LGIM is finalising a deal to sign US oral hygiene group Colgate-Palmolive for 25,000 square feet of offices at Goldsworth Place from its long-term offices at Guildford Business Park where it leases around 22,000 square feet.
The investment manager has also completed a lease of 6,000 square feet to order communications group Clinisys, moving from its offices at Culverdon House, Abbots Way in Chertsey.
In Staines, it signed fire and safety solutions group Chubb for 9,479 square feet of offices at its Lotus Park riverside office development in Staines, meaning the 103,000-square-foot three-building campus is fully let.
Earlier in the year, LGIM, on behalf of its segregated mandate fund, signed Motor Fuel Group and St James’s Place for 15,527 square feet of offices at 10 Bricket Road in St Albans, taking the recently completed development close to full occupancy.
The letting comes as CoStar News is tracking more than 300,000 square feet of office lettings close to exchanging across the South East in what will provide evidence that the occupier market is picking up strongly.
LGIM is advised by CBRE and Savills in Chertsey. Realest is advising Air Products.