Lease of property to Publicis

Great Portland Estates PLC
13 December 2005


          Great Portland secures major West End letting at Met Building

13 December 2005

Great Portland Estates plc ('GPE'), the specialist central London property
company, has agreed to lease 51,350 sq ft of office and retail space to Publicis
SA subsidiary Zenith Optimedia Limited ('Zenith') at the recently completed Met
Building, Percy Street, London W1.

Zenith will pay a total of £2,020,000 p.a. equating to an average office rent of
£41.90 per sq ft, on five separate leases for a period of fifteen years with an
option to break at the tenth year. They will receive an initial rent free period
of at least thirteen months, and a cash contribution towards fitting out costs
of £1.5 million. If the tenth year break clause is exercised, Zenith will pay a
penalty equivalent to 6 months rent.

The 111,000 sq ft building is now 92% let by rental value at rents of between
£41.50 and £55.00 per sq ft within seven months of construction completion. The
Zenith transaction follows lettings to Natwest Bank, HSBC, Gardiner & Theobald,
SwitchCo and GML International and only two tower floors totaling 9,050 sq ft
are still being marketed to let.

GPE acquired the property with the neighbouring 28 Percy Street in June 2003 for
£16.0 million and secured a planning consent for the building's redevelopment in
August 2003. 28 Percy Street was sold earlier this year for £1.4m.

Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive of GPE said 'This letting secures a prestigious
tenant for this quality West End development and we are delighted to welcome
Zenith to the building.'

'Met Building is the first of ten major refurbishment and development schemes
that GPE will be delivering into the under supplied West End and South Bank
markets over the next three years and, like Met Building, all of our projects
are designed to provide good quality, flexible space at competitive rents'.

Contacts:
Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive     Great Portland Estates plc    020 7612 1442
Neil Thompson, Head of Development  Great Portland Estates plc    020 7612 1429

Edward Orlebar                      Finsbury                      020 7251 3801





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