Located in the Aldgate district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, 41-71 Commercial Road and the Met Works Building consist of 12,371 m2 of innovation and education space spread on a 0.4-hectare site.

The site was bought from the Department for Education and is subject to over 40% of the space pre-leased to two higher education providers - Nottingham Trent University’s Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies and Access Creative College.

The Commercial Road campus will be substantially refurbished and expanded to circa 13,935 m2, with 7,432 m2 of education and creative learning accommodation available for interested occupants.

Chris Lewis, managing director, LaSalle Value-Add Investments, said: ‘This investment is a great example of LaSalle’s growing Value-Add Investments strategy focusing on creating urban higher education and science accommodation in major gateway markets. Working with Trilogy to secure pre-lets on over 40% of the space provides strong downside protection in this economic environment, and we are looking forward to working closely with Trilogy to replicate the success of our prior investment in East India Dock.’

Robert Wolstenholme, founder and CEO of Trilogy Real Estate, added: ‘Aldgate is a place where the next generation of innovators and pioneers live, work, and are educated, in close proximity to the financial centres of the City of London and Canary Wharf, and surrounded by significant innovation ecosystems, particularly in the creative, technology and biomedical sectors. Our project will bring the campus back into use as a centre for higher education, upgrading it to create world-class space fit for the 21st century economy.’

The campus is surrounded by student accommodation, biomedical, and life sciences buildings, while the area is renowned for its amenity offer and proximity to leisure opportunities.

Kauffmans advised LaSalle and Trilogy and also structured the pre-leasing agreement for both occupiers.