City Place Gatwick

The Beehive, one of four buildings at City Place Gatwick

City Place Gatwick is an office complex located on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, England.^[1] The complex includes four buildings: The Beehive, an approximately 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m²) former terminal building at Gatwick Airport located on a 2.0-acre (0.81 ha) site; the BT building, a 131,500-square-foot (12,220 m²) facility on a 4.2-acre (1.7 ha) site, 2 City Place, a 85,000-square-foot (7,900 m²) building on a 1.9 acres (0.77 ha) plot, and 3 City Place, a 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m²) building on a 1.06-acre (0.43 ha) plot.^[2] Hamiltons Architects designed the "L" shaped 3 City Place.^[3]

BT Wholesale has an office in the BT building in City Place.^[4] BDO International has an office at 2 City Place.^[5] Beehive City Place previously housed the head offices of GB Airways, which had its head office in the Beehive,^[6] and CP Ships, which had its head office in 2 City Place.^[7]

History

City Place was developed by BAA Lynton.^[8] In March 2000,^[9] BT Group pre-let 14,000 square metres (150,000 sq ft) of space at City Place, which at the time had 46,500 square metres (501,000 sq ft) of available space; it was a part of an effort by BT to move employees from Central London to locations along the M25 motorway.^[8] The BT 15 year lease had an initial rent of £242 per square metre. BT had an option to use an additional 10,200 square metres (110,000 sq ft) once the space became available. Construction at 1 City Place was completed in May 2002, and BT planned to occupy the building at the end of 2002.^[9] In October 2002 BAA Lynton announced that it was selling 1 City Place, which was valued at £41.7 million. The real estate arm of Gulf Atlantic bought 1 City Place.^[9] BAA received 14 million pounds from the sale of 1 City Place Gatwick and Heathrow South Cargo Centre 1.^[10]

2 City Place was forward funded by the Co-operative Insurance Society.^[9] BAA Lynton was building phase two of 2 City Place as of November 2001.^[11]

The owners of the Beehive leased the building to GB Airways, and later sold it to the airline.^[9] When Easyjet announced its purchase of most of GB Airways's assets in 2007, The Beehive was not included. The employment base at The Beehive closed, with 284 job losses.^[12]

In 2003 CP Ships moved its European HQ in to 2 City Place.^{[citation needed]} In 2004 it announced that it would move its head office from Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster to Gatwick.^[13] After Hapag-Lloyd acquired CP Ships, in 2006 Hapag-Lloyd announced it would cut 500 positions at Gatwick.^[14] In 2007 BDO International announced that it was moving an office to Gatwick from Bromley, London Borough of Bromley. BDO leased the entire 21,000-square-foot (2,000 m²) second floor of its new building.^[15] After the purchase by easyJet occurred in January 2008, the building was retained by GB's former parent company, Bland Group.^[16]

Construction on a £10.2 million, four storey office building at CityPlace was completed in September 2008.^[17]

References

1. ^ "Cityplacegatwick." City Place Gatwick. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
2. ^ "Master Plan." City Place Gatwick. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
3. ^ "3 City Place, Gatwick." English Architectural Glazing. Retrieved on 13 February 2011.
4. ^ "Visiting City Place." BT Wholesale. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
5. ^ "Gatwick." BDO International. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
6. ^ "The Beehive." GB Airways. Retrieved on May 19, 2009.
7. ^ "Contact Us." CP Ships. 4 November 2005. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
8. ^ ^{a b} "MEPC lands BT Workstyle pre-let at aerodrome." Property Week. 17 March 2000. Retrieved on 12 February 2011. "Signing the pre-let caps a busy week for BT. It has also pre-let 14,000 sq m (150,000 sq ft) at BAA Lynton’s 46,500 sq m (500,000 sq ft) City Place scheme at Gatwick. Both locations are part of BT’s Workstyle programme to move staff out of central London to M25 locations."
9. ^ ^{a b c d e} Mackenzie, Polly. "BAA Lynton continues non-core disposals." Property Week. 10 October 2002. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
10. ^ "BAA Results for the Year to 31 March 2003." PR Newswire. 3 June 2003. Retrieved on 13 February 2011.
11. ^ Godfrey, Adam. "Crawley & Gatwick offices: Crawley's flying low." Property Week. 16 November 2001. Retrieved on 12 February 2011. "BAA Lynton is building phase two of City Place, a 7,895 sq m (85,000 sq ft) building adjoining the 13,005 sq m (140,000 sq ft) BT prelet."
12. ^ "GB's slim profits hastened sale." Travel Trade Gazette UK & Ireland. 2 November 2007. 4 News. Retrieved on 2 March 2011.
13. ^ "CP Ships announces succession plan." Marine Log Magazine. 17 February 2004. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
14. ^ "Hapag-Lloyd cutting 44% of its jobs." The New York Times. Wednesday 19 April 2006. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
15. ^ Sukhraj, Penny. "BDO Bromley moves to Gatwick." Accountancy Age. 29 January 2007. Retrieved on 12 February 2011.
16. ^ "£103.5m sale of GB Airways to easyJet completed". Nyras Capital website. Nyras Capital LLP. 2008-01-31. http://www.nyras.co.uk/en/news-and-comment/gb-airways-sale-news.html. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
17. ^ "City Place, Gatwick." Bowmer & Kirkland Ltd. Retrieved on 13 February 2011.

External links

	West Sussex portal
	Architecture portal

• City Place Gatwick
• "BT City Place, Gatwick." Capita Symonds.
• "South East Office & Business Park Management." Knight Frank.