LaSalle Investment Management and Trilogy Real Estate have bought former London Metropolitan University buildings to refurbish into a higher education and workspace campus.

LaSalle and Trilogy said they have acquired 41-71 Commercial Road and the Met Works Building, in the Aldgate district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The site, which was acquired for an undisclosed sum, was bought from the Department for Education in a sale facilitated by the government-owned property company LocatED.

The acquisition was made ”subject to more than 40% of the campus pre-leased to Nottingham Trent University’s Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies and Access Creative College, the new owners said.

Trilogy and LaSalle previously developed Republic, a mixed-use innovation campus in East India Dock in east London, providing courses for more than 3,350 students from four major UK universities. 

Robert Wolstenholme, founder and CEO of Trilogy Real Estate, said: “Trilogy is delighted to be extending our partnership with LaSalle to bring a second major education campus to Tower Hamlets.

”We previously developed Republic, a 600,000sqft campus where education meets business, which demonstrated that London’s youngest and fastest growing borough is a great place to be training the talent of the future.”

Chris Lewis, managing director of LaSalle’s 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.”

Craig Chettle, CEO of Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, said: “We’re excited to be working with LaSalle and Trilogy on creating a campus that will support our ambitious vision to shape the future creative and entertainment industries.

“Working closely with our partner, Nottingham Trent University, we look forward to working with businesses and the wider community in East London in preparing for our new students in 2023.”

Jason Beaumont, CEO of Access Creative College, said: “Access Creative College has been educating young creatives in London for over 20 years and it’s an absolute pleasure to be able to announce our vision for the future.”

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