City Place Gatwick is an office complex located on the property of London Gatwick Airport

London Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport is located 3.1 miles north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and south of Central London. Previously known as London Gatwick,In 2010, the name changed from London Gatwick Airport to Gatwick Airport...

 in Crawley

Crawley

Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...

, West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The complex includes four buildings: The Beehive

Beehive (Gatwick Airport)

The Beehive is the original terminal building at Gatwick Airport, England. Opened in 1936, it became obsolete in the 1950s as the airport expanded. In 2008, it was converted into serviced offices, having served as the headquarters of franchised airline GB Airways for some years before that...

, an approximately 20000 square foot former terminal building at Gatwick Airport located on a 2 acre (0.809372 ha) site; the BT building, a 131500 square foot facility on a 4.2 acres (1.7 ha) site, 2 City Place, a 85000 square foot building on a 1.9 acre (0.7689034 ha) plot, and 3 City Place, a 65000 square foot building on a 1.06 acre (0.42896716 ha) plot. Hamiltons Architects designed the "L" shaped 3 City Place.

BT Wholesale

BT Wholesale

BT Wholesale is a division of BT Group responsible for the wholesale leasing of PSTN lines, broadband services and other telephony services to retail customers such as BT Retail, Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse.-External links:*...

 has an office in the BT building in City Place. BDO International

BDO International

BDO International is a worldwide professional services network of public accountancy firms, serving national and international clients. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity in its own country. The network, originally formed in 1963 as Binder Seidman International Group, is...

 has an office at 2 City Place. Beehive City Place previously housed the head offices of GB Airways

GB Airways

GB Airways was a UK airline; prior to its dissolution it was headquartered in "The Beehive," a former terminal building, at City Place Gatwick, London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, England. It operated scheduled services as a British Airways franchise to 30 destinations in Europe and...

, which had its head office in the Beehive, and CP Ships

CP Ships

CP Ships was a large Canadian container shipping company, prior to being taken over by Hapag Lloyd in late 2005. CP Ships had its head office in the City of Westminster in London and later in the City Place Gatwick development on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex.The...

, which had its head office in 2 City Place.

History

City Place was developed by BAA Lynton. In March 2000, BT Group

BT Group

BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

 pre-let 14000 sqm of space at City Place, which at the time had 46500 sqm of available space; it was a part of an effort by BT to move employees from Central London to locations along the M25 motorway

M25 motorway

The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...

. The BT 15 year lease had an initial rent of £242 per square metre. BT had an option to use an additional 10200 sqm once the space became available. Construction at 1 City Place was completed in May 2002, and BT planned to occupy the building at the end of 2002. In October 2002 BAA Lynton announced that it was selling 1 City Place, which was valued at £41.7 million. The real estate arm of Gulf Atlantic bought 1 City Place. BAA received 14 million pounds from the sale of 1 City Place Gatwick and Heathrow South Cargo Centre 1.

2 City Place was forward funded by the Co-operative Insurance Society. BAA Lynton was building phase two of 2 City Place as of November 2001.

The owners of the Beehive leased the building to GB Airways, and later sold it to the airline. When Easyjet

EasyJet

EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports...

 announced its purchase of most of GB Airways

GB Airways

GB Airways was a UK airline; prior to its dissolution it was headquartered in "The Beehive," a former terminal building, at City Place Gatwick, London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, England. It operated scheduled services as a British Airways franchise to 30 destinations in Europe and...

's assets in 2007, The Beehive was not included. The employment base at The Beehive closed, with 284 job losses.

In 2003 CP Ships

CP Ships

CP Ships was a large Canadian container shipping company, prior to being taken over by Hapag Lloyd in late 2005. CP Ships had its head office in the City of Westminster in London and later in the City Place Gatwick development on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex.The...

 moved its European HQ in to 2 City Place. In 2004 it announced that it would move its head office from Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

, City of Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

 to Gatwick. After Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, which in turn owns other subsidiaries such as Hapag-Lloyd Ships and a cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises which is now integrated into TUI AG, Hanover...

 acquired CP Ships, in 2006 Hapag-Lloyd announced it would cut 500 positions at Gatwick. In 2007 BDO International

BDO International

BDO International is a worldwide professional services network of public accountancy firms, serving national and international clients. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity in its own country. The network, originally formed in 1963 as Binder Seidman International Group, is...

 announced that it was moving an office to Gatwick from Bromley

Bromley

Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...

, London Borough of Bromley

London Borough of Bromley

The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.-Geography:...

. BDO leased the entire 21000 square foot second floor of its new building. After the purchase by easyJet occurred in January 2008, the building was retained by GB's former parent company, Bland Group

Bland Group

The Bland Group Ltd. is made up of a number of small operating companies based in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.-History:The Gaggero family has been running the business since 1891 although the company began in 1810 when Marcus Henry Bland, from Liverpool began a shipping company from...

.

Construction on a £10.2 million, four storey office building at CityPlace was completed in September 2008.

External links

• City Place Gatwick
• "BT City Place, Gatwick." Capita Symonds
  Capita Symonds
  Capita Symonds is part of the Capita Group.Capita Symonds is a large UK multidisciplinary consultancy operating in the building design, civil engineering, environment, management and transport sectors....
  
  .
• "South East Office & Business Park Management." Knight Frank.