Jones Lang LaSalle - Offices Development - London SE1, Montague Place

Date: 29 Jun 2001

Jones Lang LaSalle - having been appointed as joint project manager by clients of Clerical Medical Investment Management (C.M.I.M) and ANZ Bank for a major 9,300 sq m (100,000 sq ft) refurbishment and fit out of the bank's Minerva House central London headquarters at Montague Place, London, SE1 - is pleased to announce the successful completion of stage one works. The two-stage project follows ANZ Bank's completion of a sale of the building last September to clients of C.M.I.M.and the leaseback of the building's four lower floors. The upper three floors are being vacated for refurbishment and have now been prelet to the solicitors Warner Cranston Reed Smith.

The £8 million project, funded almost entirely by C.M.I.M., is being led by Jones Lang LaSalle's Development and Project Management team. This will see a comprehensive refurbishment undertaken with a restrictive and detailed phasing programme. The programme has been designed to enable ANZ Bank to continue operations during works and maintain core activity, most notably on the dealing floor, while ensuring a fast and efficient release of the upper floors to meet the incoming tenant's occupational target date.

Chris Richards, head of Interiors within Jones Lang LaSalle's Development and Project Management unit, says:

"Minerva House is a major project for us and brings a unique set of challenges. Not only are we working to a tight overall programme but the logistics involved demand painstaking planning with no room for slippage. We are looking at a comprehensive refurbishment including changing the air conditioning from an old induction system to new fan coil and, all the time, keeping the whole building, including ANZ's dealer floor, running 24 hours a day."

The overall project will see Jones Lang LaSalle acting as project manager for both Cat A (EL) and Cat B (ANZ) works on a system of one contract, one team, two separate budgets.

Currently, the project team has completed the refurbishment of the four lower floors (approx. 5,000 sq m) which are being occupied by ANZ Bank. Refurbishment works on the remaining three upper floors (approx. 3,500 sq m) are programmed to continue during the summer with completion anticipated in September 2001. This space has been pre-let to Warner Cranston Reed Smith.

There are also 12 flats that are being refurbished for letting on shorthold tenancies.

Chris Richards concludes:

"We are delighted to have completed the first stage of this major project. It is testament to the capabilities of the team that this has been achieved whilst maintaining the Banks operations. We have developed a specialism in projects that bring tough challenges and, having completed stage one of this major project on programme, we are confident that we can look forward to completion of stage two in September and handing back a greatly improved building as an investment to clients of C.M.I.M.."

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