Primrose development company dumps plan for 14-floor office in Oniru

Growing expectations that the property market will see more office spaces in the short and medium terms has dropped markedly, as Primrose Development Company abandons its earlier plans to develop a 14-floor office building in the Oniru sub-market in Lagos.

The project, known as One Zero Five Place, was designed to offer 11,000 square metres of leasable office space. This year alone, all things being equal, the commercial office segment of the property market expects to receive over 50,000 square metres of space from projects at various stages of completion.

“The land for the project is up for sale”, estate intel reveals, pointing out that the project was designed by Stauch Vorster Architects and was to sit on a 3,048.6 square metres site directly opposite the Cornerstone Office development which is adjacent to Four Points By Sheraton Hotel.

Primrose Development Company, a major player in the high end property market, was a development partner with Actis International in The Heritage Place, a 14-floor A-Grade office building in Ikoyi, Lagos touted as Nigeria’s first LEED-certified green building where tenants enjoy as high as 20 percent energy saving.

One Zero Five Place’s 11,000 square metres of leasable office space has an excellent efficiency ratio of 96 percent as measured by the Building Owners & Managers Association International (BOMA); it provides ample parking, a cafeteria, gym, and an intelligent building management system. The building was also designed with disabled persons-friendly features and much more.

“The office market in Lagos, however, has come under pressure with large supply additions, tipping the market in favour of the tenant. In 2016, building completions came in at a disruptive 20 percent of the stock, much more than the 5-10 percent range where market shocks typically begin”,e-intel notes.

The office market is currently tenant’s market and to continue to stay in business and attract occupiers in the largely vacant buildings, landlords are offering varying degrees of concessions including yearly and, in some cases, quarterly rents as against long lease terms that ruled the market before now.

e-intels reveals further that the site is being marketed along with its Governor’s Consent and approved building plan for 14-floors of office and a basement. This is a compelling value proposition for savvy investors who also have good location of the site to booth.

“Primrose Development Company’s portfolio remains active with recent projects including Heritage Place in Ikoyi, completed through a joint venture with Actis and a separate development of five luxury residential villas on 1 Moor Road, also in Ikoyi”,e-intel observes.