Morning:
6°c
Ark no longer an empty vessel as the first tenant since 2000 moves in
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor30 Jul 2009
One of London's most notorious white elephants will finally echo to the sound of life after lying deserted for almost a decade.
Hammersmith's bulbous Ark building - familiar to drivers on the A4 Westway - has secured its first tenant since 2000.
But initially at least, the employees of US digital TV company Open TV will have plenty of room to rattle around in when they move in during September.
They are taking only the top and smallest floor of the nine-storey building, which was designed by Stockholm-based architect Ralph Erskin and completed in 1992.
The 10-year lease accounts for only 7,091 square feet, or four per cent of the building's 165,000 sq ft.
Owners GE Capital Real Estate, Landid and O&H Properties are said to have dropped the asking price from around £42 per sq ft to £35. They paid £49.5 million for the Ark in 2006 and have since spent a further £20 million on it.
As well as standing empty for nine years it has secured a place in a green campaigners' "list of shame" for leaving lights on for weeks. The Ark has struggled to find tenants in its 17-year history, having been completed at the end of the Nineties recession. Blue chip companies such as Coca-Cola, Walt Disney, Monsoon and EMI have all been linked with the copper-clad post-modernist building, but ultimately moved elsewhere. Canadian drinks company Seagrams used it as its UK headquarters until 2000.
Critics said it was too close to the Hammersmith flyover and on its wrong side and that pedestrian access is dark and wind-swept.
But property industry sources said there was strong interest from other potential tenants.
