Real estate investment firm completes Leeds' Old School office refurbishment

Bdaily News

Rebecca Wayman

3rd December 2018

Global real estate investment company, Kennedy Wilson has announced its most recent letting to Shift Commerce, a high growth e-commerce platform.

This is the newly launched Old School redevelopment, said to be an iconic office building in Leeds, involving a comprehensive refurbishment of the 21,464 sq ft building.
Shift Commerce has agreed a new 4,200 sq ft, five-year lease for the entire third floor. Approximately 11,000 sq ft of creative workspace on the first and second floors remains available to lease.

The building dates to the 1870s and was originally constructed for the Leeds School Board.

Old School is now said to deliver a Grade A workspace targeted at the creative, professional and corporate business sectors. It is also home to the new street food and craft beer concept, Assembly Underground.

Nick Judge, director of asset management at Kennedy Wilson, said: “This spectacular new office scheme, complemented by a new vibrant street food and bar concept, brings much needed Grade A office space to Leeds, a city benefiting from significant growth.

“The decision by Shift Commerce to take up one-third of the available space and commit to the project at the practical completion stage highlights the unique opportunity this fantastic workspace offers to the Leeds market.”

The historic character of Old School has been mixed with new services such as LED lighting, Mitsubishi fan coil heating/cooling system, lifts, showers and lockers.

JLL and WSB are the appointed agents for the office scheme.