CC moves to fill large sub-let as Olympics body set for post-Games wind down

Clifford Chance (CC) could lose millions of pounds of rental income from its Canary Wharf headquarters later this year, when the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) staff housed in the building for the last two years are expected to move out.

LOCOG currently has no set exit date from the building but it will be preparing to wind down following the Games in July and August this year.

The committee moved into CC's office in 2010 and has staff across six floors of the building, covering around 135,000 sq ft.

CC declined to say how much rent it collects from LOCOG, but based on recent letting rates of £46 per sq ft by the Canary Wharf Group in the same area, the firm could expect to make more than £6m a year for the space. The space had previously been let to KPMG, which housed 1,000 staff in the building before moving into its own office in Canary Wharf in 2010.

CC also sublets space in its 30-floor 700,000 sq ft building to MasterCard, InfoSys, Total and the FTSE Group, all of which have less than a single floor. CC moved into the building in 2003, becoming the first UK law firm to take up residency in Canary Wharf.

CC and LOCOG both declined to comment on the sublet arrangement, or how many LOCOG staff members are based in the building. CC is marketing the space and is understood to be in talks with a number of potential tenants.

Allen & Overy (A&O) has had agents looking for tenants for two floors of its 64,500 sq ft space at 40 Bank Street for almost two years. The firm intends to keep its remaining floor in the building as meeting space.

A&O first took on the office space in 2003, when Canary Wharf was seen as the up-and-coming location for banking in the UK. However, it subsequently spent £25m relocating 200 staff members from the firm's banking team to its Bishops Square headquarters to reunite them with the rest of the firm in 2010.