Gold-plated Armani loos, a golden staircase and 16th century timber flooring: Here’s London’s most expensive office
After all the hysteria over London's super-prime housing market, this was always bound to happen: a developer has unveiled London's swankiest offices. If you're running a business on any kind of budget, look away now…
The office building, at 54 Brooks Mews, is in the middle of Mayfair (natch), and has been developed by Enstar Capital, which spent £500 per sq ft kitting them out. It reckons that's the most expensive per sq ft commercial fit-out ever undertaken in the West End.
Among the swankiest features included are gold-plated toilets designed to match those in the Armani hotel in Milan; a marble-and-gold staircase – and timber flooring imported from a 16th century monastery in Tuscany. Because timber flooring from 16th century monasteries in the UK just won't do…
The washrooms are designed to look like those in the Armani hotel in Milan (Source: Enstar Capital)
The building's kitchens have a special "food lift" connected to the Le Petite Maison bistro on the ground floor of the building, for when your workers just can't go on without thinly-sliced octopus in lemon oil.
And the director's suite, above, includes a private rooftop terrace, which includes its own loungers and a meeting table.
How much will such luxury set you back? Each 2,000 sq ft space is available to let on a five-ear lease with a guide price of £250,000 per year. That's £1.5m for the full five-year term. A snip…
The building features art-deco staircases (Source: Enstar Capital)
Not surprisingly, Enstar reckons the offices are "perfect for a hedge fund or private family office of super-rich Middle East/Asian Royals or business people". The company will market them to "Saudi Royals, family of Sultan of Brunei and Qatari Royals and relatives", it said.
“Offices should be as good as homes," said Simon Lyons, joint chief executive of Enstar.
"Local business people think nothing of spending £5m to £100m on a Mayfair home, spending hundreds of pounds per square feet fitting it out, yet will work nearby in offices which are nowhere near the standard of luxury or quality.
"People spend a third of their lives at work, so this is why we have fitted these premises out to a luxury-residential finish."