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Republic, the 720K SF office-led mixed-use scheme in the Poplar area of east London’s Docklands, secured lettings totalling more than 120K SF at the tail end of 2021, with one particular type of tenant taking big chunks of space — universities.
Republic was developed by Trilogy Real Estate and LaSalle Investment Management and saw the conversion and refurbishment of a group of 1970s office blocks. Trilogy said the 120K SF leased represented 30% of the take-up in the Docklands submarket in 2021.
York St John University, relocating from central London, has taken 25K SF in the Export Building, one of the scheme’s first two buildings, to become the latest education institute to bring its London campus to Republic. York St John University will use the new space to expand and consolidate its existing courses, including apprenticeships. It will also launch seven new postgraduate programmes and professional education courses.
The University of the West of Scotland has taken an additional 25K SF in the Export Building, adding to the approximately 16K SF it already leases within the Import Building at Republic. The new space will be used to expand the number of postgraduate, MBA and professional education courses offered by the university, which has based its London campus at Republic since May 2020.
Anglia Ruskin University took a further 24K SF in the Export Building in November 2021, continuing its expansion at the campus. The university now occupies about 85K SF across both the Import and Export buildings. Allsop and CBRE act for the landlord on office leasing. ARU London has been advised by SHB Real Estate.
Trilogy has also partnered with the University of the West of Scotland and coworking specialist The Trampery to launch The Greenhouse, an incubator unit with 30 desks for innovative startup companies selected through The Trampery’s Evo Pioneers Programme and the networks of UWS.
A total of 10 companies selected by each of these programmes will be given space free of charge, with access to business support and coaching. The remaining 10 desks will be available to paying members. The Greenhouse will occupy a 2K SF ground-floor workspace in the Export Building.
Republic’s new "micro-studios" concept will officially launch this year, with one of the five available spaces of 500 SF to 1K SF already pre-let to the online parking marketplace Your Parking Space, and another under offer. The workspaces operate on an all-inclusive basis.
The lettings roster was completed with deals involving retail or leisure tenants, including Black Rock Whisky Bar, Gelato a Casa and the Sweet Nothing Bakehouse, which were joined by physical therapy innovator Myoset in August 2021.
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