Favorable (for now) real estate prices and rapidly growing music and tech sectors help lure Universal Music Group and Google to the neighborhood.
Illustration by Charlotte Farmer
The major's U.K. headquarters long have been based in Kensington, also home to Sony Music and Warner Music Group. But come the summer of 2017, UMG will move its 1,000-plus workforce, as well as those of its sister companies Universal Music Publishing Group and See Tickets, to 4 Pancras Square, one of Kings Cross' premier new business hubs. Currently under construction, the 10-story Eric Parry Architects-designed building will boast 177,000 square feet of office space, balconies at all levels, a roof-top garden and a ground-floor restaurant.
It joins existing Kings Cross neighbors The Guardian newspaper, U.K. performing rights society PRS for Music, Louis Vuitton and the University of the Arts London (home to Central Saint Martins, whose alumni include Stella McCartney, PJ Harvey and Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker), with global media firm Havas to follow.
A rendering of 4 Pancras Square, Universal Music's future home.
Courtesy of Argent
Google already has committed to relocate its London HQ to the area and saw its plans for a vast £650 million ($996 million), 969,000-square-foot office complex approved by Camden Council in 2013. Since then, sources say those designs .... READ FULL STORY HERE