Our Projects
We are proud to be involved in many of the UK’s leading property developments, which have an important role to play in the long term success of the UK economy. See below some examples of our work.
US private equity company Angelo Gordon, which manages $27bn of global funds, and Trinity Investment Management, a private UK property company, identified the BEST network of science parks as an opportunity to acquire five science parks with potential for strong income and capital returns.
MedCity was set up by the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency to oversee the promotion of the health sciences sector in London and the Greater South East.
Loughborough University has made major investments over many years, with public sector partners, to create the Science and Enterprise Park which is today home to over 50 companies in around 500,000 sq ft of accommodation.
Advising on the sale of land to a developer to construct a building for R&D occupiers; and subsequently re-acquiring it for our University client.
Establishing an ‘inside-out’ approach to marketing which has utilised the research base to promote the project to R&D businesses. As a result, development is taking place at a considerable pace and Astra Zeneca have announced they will be building their 80,000 sq m global HQ and a major R&D facility here.
The London Borough of Sutton is home to a globally significant cluster of excellence in cancer research and clinical care at the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).
Calculating the public sector funding gap for the project and securing the most appropriate private sector partner to deliver success.
Helping to create master plans enabling the University of Cambridge to grow it’s research capability and co-locate with big businesses.
Identifying and negotiating commercial terms on a shortlist of locations to enable the Catapult to be operational in weeks.
Engaging with the public sector stakeholders to produce an engagement plan to help support the development and attract occupiers.
Establishing a list of investment priorities for the £26m funding for Norwich Research Park from the UK government, working with key stakeholders, architects and masterplanners.
Advising on the positioning and promotion of this world leading science and technology environment to engage with an academic community that will have to move here and to establish what relevant businesses will look for in this development.
Enabling the park management to plan development activity and work to further the soft infrastructure of the Park with confidence.
Working alongside Scottish Enterprise and the University to understand potential demand, competing supply and what amenities and soft infrastructure could be developed to maximize demand.
Enabling Scottish Enterprise to better understand the bio-manufacturing sector, build costs and development delivery, concluding in the sale of the Phase 1 building to an appropriate occupier.
Working with Scottish Enterprise in furthering its work to support innovation in Scotland. Providing advice on a number of their flagship property projects.
Providing a better understanding of trends in the life sciences sector and of the regional cluster around Glasgow to support the case for further investment.
Evaluating the short list of potential locations, using our experience of securing property for R&D businesses, enabling Innovate UK to demonstrate open, clear and compelling reasons for the chosen location.
Providing advice on where the potential market might be for the accommodation and how the partners could work together to increase demand for the space.
Negotiating a co-operation agreement between the land owners and the hospital trust before acting for both parties in selecting a promoter / development partner on the open market.
Appraising the potential for the science park, working to build relationships with the public sector partners and structuring an appropriate joint venture agreement.
Identifying a strategy for the science park that would enable it to support the University more effectively and widen its involvement with industry
Working within the master planning team to ensure the plan provides appropriate co-location of academic and commercial property, the right facilities for building a vibrant research community and fully understands viability.
Understanding the international, national and regional trends in research and R&D as well as supply and demand in London to provide projected demand and occupancy levels and guidance on essential services.
Using our extensive knowledge of the life sciences property market in Cambridge to provide supply, building specification and rental value advice, enabling them to fully understand their market context.
Working alongside property agents to ensure all demand was captured by working closely with the research base to unlock potential opportunities from them.
BA Pension Fund bought ‘The Ugly Brown Building’ redevelopment site in 2015, with plans to provide new office accommodation and a hotel for one of the principal occupiers in the location, Ted Baker.
The Wellcome Trust has developed the Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire to one of the foremost locations in the world for genomics research and big data analysis.
The Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity is an independent, place-based foundation that works with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and others to improve the health of people in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.
The London Bioscience Innovation Centre was established in 2000 by the Royal Veterinary College as a direct response to the shortage of accommodation for Life Science activity in Central London.
The University of Leeds wanted to make a step change to its Innovation Centre initiative – not just moving the activity into a new building in a prominent position at the front of the University campus, city centre facing, but also moving it culturally.
The London Borough of Sutton is in the process of bringing forward the London Cancer Hub, a proposed development of space for commercial R&D alongside the Institute of Cancer research and the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Norwich Research Park is a major centre for food and health research, being home to the John Innes Centre, the Institute for Food Research, the University of East Anglia, the Sainsbury Laboratory and the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital.
The University of Southampton had created one of the most successful, flourishing science parks in the country.
University College London knew that it was very well placed to capitalise on the establishment of the Francis Crick Institute in its Euston Road/Kings Cross district of London.
Barts Health NHS Trust has built a new leading and internationally renowned teaching hospital in east London with in the district of Tower Hamlets.
Tesco Pension Fund wanted to forward fund the laboratory and office building that had been pre-let to Abcam plc at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Client Challenges
The BioData Innovation Centre was built by the Wellcome Trust at their Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridge. The centre is located alongside world leading research activity in genomics and big data and the team managing the facility wanted to ensure they were letting the space on appropriate market terms.
Our Solutions
We have used our market knowledge to advise on the market rent applicable for the space taking into account the specification of the space, items included in the commercial offer, the quality of the wider campus and the nature of tenure. We have analysed comparable locations using our detailed knowledge and relationships to ensure each offer can be properly compared.
Results
The client has been able to ensure the value of the space is regularly updated to meet financial and regulatory requirements.
