Tenants jostle for office space in Lagos Civic Centre Tower

EXPECTATIONS are rife once again within real estate development community in Nigeria that substantial strides may yet be attained in the pursuit of increasing the nation’s office space, with proposed rounding up of construction of a 9,172 square meters commercial complex next week on the busy Ozumba Mbadiwe Road in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Coming as one of the most sought- after prime commercial property, the iconic gold standard 16-storey office building – Civic Centre Tower, promoted by Jim Ovia’s Quantum Luxury Properties, offers high-quality office space in a growing and vibrant urban location, which is located close to the well-celebrated Civic Centre and other on-going developments such as Marriot Hotel and shopping mall.

Recent report by Broll shows that Nigeria is the most expensive market for the office space segment of the market and claims that despite the availability of prime properties in major city centres such as Lagos and Abuja, the needs of some international tenants seeking befitting office spaces are yet to be met, thus increasing the rents of the available spaces as demand for same outstrips supply.

The Guardian learnt prospective tenants have recently besieged the marketing consultant of the project, Fine and Country in search of office spaces.

Out of the total leasable space of 7,412 square metres, the firm has successfully leased approximately 70 per cent to leading multinationals, financial Institutions, oil and gas companies as well as telecommunication/IT companies, and only approximately 2, 000m2 or three floors are available for lease.

Senior officials of the company revealed, “we are currently accepting and reviewing offers for office spaces.” With its dramatic height, Civic Centre Towers forms a dramatic pivotal point for the street scene below and will benefit from the ongoing transformation of the Ozumba Mbadiwe Road and area, the tenants have the unique opportunity of alternatives to normal road transportation.

The location presents an option of either: – driving – going by air – with a helipad next door, – waterways with a jetty attached to the tower.

Dubbed as an “Intelligent building”, the complex comes with a central communication tower – VSAT & broadband enabled, provision for all tenants plug-ins and IT core/infrastructure convergence.

Designed to first class office standards including nine-foot high ceilings, floor-to-floor exterior glazing and state of the art building systems, the building offers spectacular panoramic views of the scenic Five Cowrie Creek from all floors.

In addition, even the lowest office floor offers unobstructed views of the creek and a parking lot, which is secured on a three-level parking facility.

Unique features of the building include its central location, 24-hour security, on-site management, a fitness centre, on-site parking, meeting room facilities, a Mezannine plaza and recycling programme.

The multi-billion naira complex also boasts of such amenities as restaurants and coffee shops in the immediate area including Villa Medici, Pataya, Prime Chinese and an abundance of ethnic restaurants and fast foods outlets add to the flavor of the area.

It is strategically located in the heart of financial centre and home to headquarters of all major banks in Nigeria. The complex has proximity to shopping areas like Grand Plaza on Adetokunbo Ademola, The Palms Shopping Centre and Shoprite. Sample opportunities exist around the location for recreational sports with occupants choosing between taking a stroll to Bar Beach, while others could decide to soak in the sounds of the waves.

There is also the option of taking a boat ride out of Five Cowrie Creek around Lagos visiting several interesting coastal locations. Similarly, the tower provides retail space on the Mezzanine floor for a full service restaurant and coffee shop, is strategically located next door to The Civic Centre which houses facilities for conferences, meetings and also a premier boat club jetty and various retailers.

It also has an on-site secure three-level parking facility for authorised monthly, hourly and daily users as well an on-site building management office equipped with janitorial, maintenance and security services.

Besides, it has access control, access card enabled entry to various floors, provision for security and safety, CCTV systems, an intruder alarm, automated high sensitive fire alarm system, lighting control, structural cabling and IT network, and WI-FI.

All these features have combined to give tenants the advantage of reduced renovation time when moving in to convert the new office space in order to accommodate IT infrastructure.

Senior officials of Fine and Country said: “ The Civic Centre Commercial Tower has always been designed to be a premium office complex.

However, there’s a also an international 5 star hotel (Marriott) by the same principal (Messrs Quantum Capital) currently under construction very close to the towers.

This will be an added value to tenants of the office complex.” Consultants in charge of the project include Cappa & D’alberto Plc (building and civil engineering contractors and Interstate Architects (architects/designers)