Specification:  Being a refurbishment, many of the specificational standards required of modern office accommodation were difficult to achieve ie floor to ceiling height, floor loadings, uninterrupted external elevations etc, In acting for the Tenant we therefore had to demonstrate a keen awareness of those base building specification issues which might impact upon the Client’s future occupation of the building. Of particular concern was the need to ensure that the building could cope with the volume of cellularisation required by a law firm, the ability to house relatively large areas of high density filing and the ability to provide a flexible work space over the 25 year lease period.

Shell & core –v- category A finish:  Our Client was keen to minimise his financial risk by having the developer do as much work as possible thereby minimising the amount of further work to be handled under direct contracts. Our Client did, however, require two floors of the building to be fitted-out as special areas (ie not as open plan or cellular offices). It is clear that the required fit-out of these floors could not be achieved by modifying a standard Category ‘A’ finish nor was it possible to specify what was actually required in time for the developer to fit-out the space as part of his contract. As a consequence, it was decided that the best way forward was to take this floor in a shell and core state and for the Tenant to complete all the fitting-out works themselves.

Floor Area: 77,000sq ft (nett)
Form of Contract: JCT Without Quantities
Contract Period: 18 Weeks
Occupation: May 2002

The project scope was for the Fit-out of six floors of a recently refurbished building. Three floors from Category A finish and three floors from Shell and Core.

A major lesson at New Fetter Lane was one that we had adequately pre-empted. There is always a pressure to move into new accommodation as soon as possible but this project demonstrated that it is very important to allow a sensible period of float in respect of the completion of the Developer’s works. In this case, the base building works overran by 3-4 months which could have been problematic for our Client had he not put in place plans to deal with such an occurrence.

Whilst it is obviously sensible to be in a position to start work on site when the Developer says he is going to complete, a tenant must have contingency plans – particularly in terms of exit strategy from existing accommodation that can be implemented in the event of the base building works overrunning.