The 10-year-old Gleacher & Co. LLC will be opening its first United Kingdom office on the third floor, taking 10,240 sf in a 15-year pact, a Harwood source has told GlobeSt.com. The fourth floor's 10,400 sf will be occupied by Elliott Management Ltd., a 23-year-old hedge fund. Elliott Management, a subsidiary of US-based Elliott Associates LP, also has signed a 15-year lease. It will be relocating from a smaller office that it has maintained in London for the past six years.

Gleacher, a Madison Avenue company, already has ties in the UK, counting among its partners, Sir John Craven, who had been knighted two years ago for services to London and the banking industry. The 39-year-old Craven had joined Gleacher in January along with Alton F. Irby III, another well-known in London business circles.

Some say the Cleveland House, situated in St. James Square, is asking a Queen's ransom for the space, reportedly breaking all London rental rate records. The space supposedly is fetching $164 per sf, a handsome fee no doubt bolstered by its positioning in the high-profile, bustling financial district and proximity to Buckingham Palace, world-renowned hotels, restaurants and underground stations for Green Park and Piccadilly. The Cleveland House neighbors some of the world's foremost financial firms, including J.P. Morgan, State Street Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris, GE Capital and J. Rothschild Holdings.

Lead tenant is the Rolex Watch Co. Ltd., which occupies the lower ground, ground and first floors. Rolex, a Harwood tenant in Dallas, had inked its long-term contract in concert with the Oct. 31 acquisition of the prestigious property. The Cleveland House, Harwood's first UK project, is owned by St. James Square LP in a partnership that has been put into play for an ongoing European expansion. Harwood also has capital partners in Germany, Switzerland as well as the US.

Two of the five aboveground floors remain open in the building. "There's such a high demand that it shouldn't take too long to fill up," the source has told GlobeSt.com.

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New York City Firms Take Space at Harwood International's Cleveland House in London

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