Complete with a grand Art Deco style marble staircase and Armani-style loos, the interiors of 54 Brooks Mews in London’s Mayfair at first glance look like yet another plush boutique hotel or the latest pied-à-terre aimed at billionaire investors.
But despite the timber flooring imported from a 16th-century monastery in Tuscany, the rooftop terraces and dining provided by celebrity restaurant La Petite Maison, this building is an office.
And what an office. According to developers Enstar Capital, the newly refurbished 6,000 square foot space, located above one of the capital’s top eateries, is London’s most luxurious boutique office building.
Certainly after undergoing a £500 (Dh2,800) per square foot fit out – the most expensive commercial fit-out per square foot ever seen in either Mayfair or the West End – it’s a world away from the sort of open-plan, air-conditioned corporate environment in which most of us spend our working week.
A 16-month redevelopment of a 1930s brick headquarters building by the architects Stiff & Trevillion has resulted in a restoration of its original 1930s Art Deco staircase with Statuario Michelangelo marble, Italian polished plasterwork and a polished brass handrail.
On each floor are what Enstar Capital calls Mayfair’s most luxurious executive washrooms. The washroom and toilet walls are lined in floor-to-ceiling gold-coloured mosaic tiles. Mirrored washbasins are designed to echo the ambience of Milan’s five-star Armani hotel.
And in the office kitchen there are plans to install a special food lift to connect the workspace to La Petite Maison restaurant on the ground floor. Bubbly, snacks or a three course meal can be delivered from the restaurant directly into the offices.
“Offices should be as good as homes. Local business people think nothing of spending £5 million to £100m on a Mayfair home or spending hundreds of pounds per square feet fitting it out, yet will work nearby in offices that are nowhere near the standard of luxury or quality,” says Simon Lyons, the joint chief executive of Enstar Capital.
“People spend a third of their lives at work, so this is why we have fitted these premises out to a luxury-residential finish. Gold Armani washrooms, automatic lighting, luxury flooring and in-office restaurant dining – it’s the best office in Mayfair.”
Q&A
How much does it cost to rent an office here?
Annual rent of an office in this location costs the same as buying a modest house. The first and second floors each provide 2,000 square feet of accommodation. Each is available to let on a 5-year lease with a guide price of £250,000 a year.
What other features are there?
Each office floor has pre-programmable controls so that lights, air conditioning or heating automatically switch on when a person enters a room, and turn off upon their departure. Light and temperature can be programmed to occupants’ personal preferences.
What is the history of the building?
At the back of Claridge’s hotel, commercial premises on the site date back to 1723 when it was a workshop for the carpentry firm John Armstrong & Co, providing bespoke joinery and cabinets for the wealthy mansions of Mayfair. By the 1880s it had become a coach house used by the Earl of Rosebery. The current building, which has Art Deco and modernist detailing, was completed in 1937, designed by the architects Mitchell & Bridgwater, as the headquarters of the Mayfair developer George Smith & Co. In 1975 it became the headquarters of City Tote, a luxury casino business, which occupied it until the 1990s. It then reverted to the Grosvenor Estate and became multi-let premises.
How did Enstar acquire the building?
The building was acquired by Enstar Capital in 2009 because the La Petite Maison restaurant on the ground floor was a favourite dining venue of Enstar’s founding directors Simon Lyons and Farid Alizadeh. Enstar’s own offices are located on the top floor.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
