Wework grabs €62m from EU in Brexit deal for London office spot
Office sharing giant Wework is set to net a €62m (£55.7m) windfall when it takes over the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) former London headquarters, following the body’s relocation to Amsterdam.
A deal secured earlier this month will see Wework sublet 280,000 square foot in Canary Wharf’s 30 Churchill Place, creating one of the world’s largest serviced office spaces.
Following the UK’s vote to exit the EU in 2016, the EMA was forced to drop the £500m lease it had agreed in 2011
Read more: EMA to sublet headquarters to Wework after High Court defeat
The EU’s draft budget for 2020 revealed it had allocated €62m in “financial inducements” for the new sub-tenant for the financial year 2019/20.
It is unclear whether any additional funds are planned for the rest of the EMA’s 25-year lease of Churchill Place.
The European Commission will provide the EMA with a further €6.2m on top of its regular financial programming for 2020 in order to cope with the bill.
“This is standard practice in the London commercial property market and these inducements are typically used by the tenant to fit out the building to their specifications. EMA received similar financial inducements when we entered into the original lease. The financial inducements are being funded from the EU budget,” an EMA spokesperson first told the Guardian yesterday.