Cooke & Arkwright
News
Record rent at Assembly Square
20/03/2012
A new record rent of £22 per sq ft has been set in the Cardiff office market in a deal which sees leading patent and trade mark attorney firm, Abel & Imray move to Cardiff Waterside’s flagship waterfront building, 3 Assembly Square in Cardiff Bay. The firm is taking just under 3,000 sq ft on a ten year lease in the Aviva Investor owned, 66,215 sq ft building in Britannia Quay. It will move from its current location in Windsor Place in March 2012 as part of a long term strategy to grow and expand its offering of quality intellectual property (IP) services to the South Wales market. Cooke & Arkwright acted for Cardiff Waterside in the deal.
Abel & Imray’s Cardiff office opened in 2001 and employs experienced patent attorneys handling work in all technologies including engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electronics, optics and ICT. Clients in Wales include well known organisations such as Cardiff University, Cassidian, Contour Aerospace, Norgine Pharmaceuticals and a wide variety of high tech and high growth Welsh SMEs. The firm has a trade mark team which provides a comprehensive brand protection service as well as other intellectual property services such as IP audits, IP due diligence and IP strategy advice. It will join existing tenants KPMG, Acuity Legal and Gambit Corporate Finance at the six storey office.
Jim Pearson, the Partner managing the relocation for Abel & Imray, which also has offices in London and Bath said, “As a firm of patent and trade mark attorneys routinely advising on innovation it is fitting that we are moving into offices with a highly innovative design and state-of-the-art eco-friendly technologies. Those technologies provide the added bonus of minimal ongoing running costs, resulting in an attractive package for us, despite the headline rent which although high for Wales, is still only about half that in central London.”
Ben Bolton, Head of Office Agency at Cooke & Arkwright said, “It’s no surprise that 3 Assembly Square has attracted the highest rent ever seen in Cardiff. Thanks to the building’s design and environmental credentials, vibrant waterfront location and on-site multi-storey car park, it has established itself as the most impressive business location in the region. We are confident that other organisations will soon be making the same decision to locate in the Bay.”
Designed by architects Scott Brownrigg and sustainability consultants Arup, the building is engineered to maximise energy efficiency. Features including a biomass boiler, chilled beams and rainwater harvesting have seen the building achieve the prestigious environmental stamp of BREEAM Excellent.
Pictured l to r: Ben Bolton, Cooke & Arkwright; Danielle Cooksley, Jim Pearson and Rhys Williams of Abel & Imray