KPMG has taken on the lease for a five-storey townhouse in London’s exclusive Mayfair district which the firm plans to open as a private members’ club for clients who would appreciate facilities in the centre of the capital, rather than further out of town at its Canary Wharf headquarters
The firm has taken 40,000 square feet of space at 20 Grosvenor Street, in the heart of Mayfair in an area well-known for upmarket night clubs, hedge fund offices, investment companies and other shops and services geared at the capital’s wealthiest inhabitants.
The building contains a restaurant, presentation suite, business lounge, meeting rooms and a bar with a terrace on the fourth floor.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Simon Collins, UK chairman of KPMG, said: ‘We thought we’d create a West End space for people to meet, mingle and touch down. Non-execs who have lots of meetings can often find it pretty lonely if they don’t have a base. So this is somewhere they can go, drop a bag, get something typed, call a cab, have a shower, a coffee and a sandwich, and meet other people.’
KPMG’s clients will only have full access to all amenities, including the bar, when accompanied by a member of staff, with Collins pointing out that if they ‘could just walk in and get subsidised or free drinks it would be seen by HMRC as a “tax benefit”.’
Over the last few years, KPMG has moved all 7,300 London staff to a state-of-the-art Canary Wharf office at 15 Canada Square, and also has a much smaller office close to Silicon Roundabout in East London.
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