£10m refurbishment of city centre offices completes

33 Wellington Place

The first phase of the £10m refurbishment of 33 Wellington Place in Leeds city centre has been completed.

Law firm Walker Morris will be moving into the 76,000 sq ft building this summer, once a complete fit-out has been carried out with all its staff relocating from nearby Kings Court and Bank House in King Street.

Once fully completed, the refurbished offices will provide Walker Morris with improved sustainability credentials including cycle and shower facilities and a 11,700 sq ft podium garden area to the rear.

The Leeds office of property consultancy Knight Frank worked in conjunction with a project team including Principal Contractor, GMI Construction Group, Project Manager, Richard Boothroyd & Associates, and Architect, DLG Architects.

To complete the move Walker Morris were represented by Leeds-based property consultancy, Fox Lloyd Jones.

A refurbishment programme was undertaken by the team as part of the first phase works, which included the redevelopment of the entire façade, remodelling of the building entrances and a reconfiguration and refit of the core areas.

Walker Morris has taken the whole of the building on a 15-year lease in the largest pre-let office deal in Leeds in 16 years.

The property, which was bought by Knight Frank Investment Management for Lancashire County Council Pension Fund from MEPC in 2010 for £20m, was occupied by PWC for 20 years before PWC moved to new headquarters in the city at Central Square in October 2016.

Malcolm Simpson, managing partner of Walker Morris, said: “The move will be a fantastic opportunity to have a state of the art, fully agile working environment here in Leeds from which all of our 500 strong team can support our local, national and international clients.

“Our new offices are “bespoke and unique”, reflecting our brand as a pre-eminent and distinctive law firm. We’re delighted to see the progress that has been made so far and we are looking forward to the move this summer.”

Eamon Fox, partner and head of office agency at Knight Frank in Leeds, who advised KFIM, said: “The property is a flagship office building in a superb city centre location and it is fitting it is now home to one of Yorkshire’s finest law firms.”

“We have worked on plans to comprehensively remodel and refurbish the interior for the past three years and the results are spectacular and magnificent. We have created open plan, state-of-the-art offices, fit for the modern working practices of the 21st century.”

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