GRIGRI Experiences London’s most ambitious mixed-use projects
GRI Club Real Estate members explored over 150 acres of urban regeneration projects and the latest proptech.
December 6, 2018Real Estate
GRI Club Real Estate members, participating in the GRI Experiences - London Real Estate Week ahead of GRI Residential Europe 2018, toured some of the UK’s largest and most ambitious mixed use, urban regeneration projects - including Wembley Park and King’s Cross - as well as taking in Pocket Living’s new, affordable housing concept and some of the latest proptech innovations backed by Concrete VC.
Here was a perfect opportunity for first-hand learning, with lessons and ideas to transfer across real estate markets.
Wembley Park: mixed-use regeneration
The GRI London Experience kicked off on a cold morning at Quintain’s 85-acre, Wembley Park regeneration scheme, where Angus Dodd, CEO of Quintain, and Catherine Webster, executive director for Strategy and Investment at Quintain, took members of GRI Club Real Estate - investors, developers and operators from Europe and around the world - on a comprehensive, personal tour.
The sheer scale of the project, on a site set around England’s national football stadium, impressed everyone, as much as the fact that Quintain has an optimal, 97% occupancy rate on its rental properties, with a variety of units which could, in theory, see rentees stay on the site in the long-term. Some were left wondering if such high levels of rents and occupancy, could be successfully realised back in their home countries. This was a chance to inspect the very smallest details - from kitchen fittings and flat furnishings to choices of brick - as well as to understand the larger picture and the lessons that Quintain itself has learned, and continues to learn, in creating the UK’s largest, purpose-built, residential project.
Concrete VC: proptech showcase
GRI Club Real Estate members combined with GRI Tech Club for a look at the latest proptech. Hosted in the rooftop atrium of Concrete Venture Capital’s co-working office, located within London’s Tech City neighbourhood, property was shown from new angles and in valuable new ways through an afternoon series of proptech presentations by Concrete VC-backed start-ups Data was the common theme, but as Chris Stephenson, partner of Concrete VC, reminded participants on the tour: ‘Data is the new oil.’
From Bird.i came high-grade satellite imagery that claims to beat Google Maps hands down if you want fresh, detailed images to track construction progress, or roof maintenance requirements, for example. District Technologies, on the other hand, focuses on the way people experience buildings and how, through data collection, that experience can be improved, all through their user experience (UX) app. Disruptive Technologies provides a toolbox of micro-sensors, each the size of a scrabble tile, that replace people with clipboards and enable property managers to monitor and maintain their buildings - even knowing when to replace the paper towel in the bathrooms. And Measurabl, through its precision software, brings together and normalises non-financial but critical environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, increasingly required by sustainability investors and asset managers.
King’s Cross: mixed-use regeneration
GRI Club Real Estate members made their way through crowds, crossed busy roads, and took in the street circus skills, all within Argent’s 67-acre King’s Cross redevelopment project.
Slightly smaller than the Wembley Park scheme, but at a more mature stage, this was a chance to compare progress of large-scale, mixed-use regeneration schemes. Argent’s Tom Goodall, who trained as an architect and was responsible for delivery of the residential side of King’s Cross - including the luxury apartments built inside the iconic gasholders, which were inspected as part of the tour - described the twists and turns of the development’s long, 18-year history. It is a story of pragmatism, resourcefulness and perseverance, founded on important strategic decisions - such as the insistence on opening up a central, public thoroughfare, which entailed knocking down one of the twenty listed structures across the site. Now more than 65% built in terms of built area, King’s Cross can look forward to welcoming Google and Facebook into their UK headquarters.
Pocket Living: affordable living
Pocket Living’s property development in Lambeth offered surprisingly large and comfortable homes, considering that each unit was based only 37m2 of space (space maximisation was a keen matter of interest for all participants throughout the tour). Of all the projects visited, this was perhaps the one that could provide most lessons on how to approach affordable living developments.
In contrast to other schemes in London - where 35% of units must qualify as affordable (and there had been talk of the Mayor of London demanding 50% levels of affordability) - Pocket Living’s schemes are 100% affordable, with its units sold at 20% below market average, which gives their projects a certain flexibility in other respects. Affordability remains a debatable topic - the average salary in London is approximately £38,000, while Pocket Living’s criteria for would-be buyers is that they must earn under £90,000, must live or work in the borough, and must be a first-time buyer. Pocket Living are passionate about their cause of creating high quality products at affordable prices, in order to keep ‘citymakers’ in London. An approach that as some observed (in response to a common issue across London) might also serve to simply keep rentees present, residential units occupied, and the community thriving.
London Fire Brigade HQ: mixed use regeneration
The London Fire Brigade headquarters is a listed, art deco building that occupies a prime position on the Albert Embankment. Big Ben - when not under wraps - sits in clear view across the River Thames. This is the building that U+I, the publicly-listed property developer that specialises in urban regeneration, and that works in particular with public land through Public Private Partnerships, is planning to redevelop.
A U+I team, led by Eoin Condren, director of joint ventures at U+I, began the tour in the depot at the back of the 2.5 acre site - formerly used to maintain and restore fire engines - which was ringing to the sound of over a hundred school children engaged in learning activities. It is what U+I calls ‘worthwhile use’, as opposed to ‘meanwhile use’, extending to a pop-up museum on emigration and artist workshops. Previous developers have failed to obtain planning permission, but here U+I, who go to planning with their mixed use scheme in February 2019, have sought to engage the local community over the last two or three years. They are actively seeking feedback and trying to understand the heritage of the site, which will retain a working fire station and include a Fire Brigade Museum.
Here was a perfect opportunity for first-hand learning, with lessons and ideas to transfer across real estate markets.
Wembley Park: mixed-use regeneration
The GRI London Experience kicked off on a cold morning at Quintain’s 85-acre, Wembley Park regeneration scheme, where Angus Dodd, CEO of Quintain, and Catherine Webster, executive director for Strategy and Investment at Quintain, took members of GRI Club Real Estate - investors, developers and operators from Europe and around the world - on a comprehensive, personal tour.
The sheer scale of the project, on a site set around England’s national football stadium, impressed everyone, as much as the fact that Quintain has an optimal, 97% occupancy rate on its rental properties, with a variety of units which could, in theory, see rentees stay on the site in the long-term. Some were left wondering if such high levels of rents and occupancy, could be successfully realised back in their home countries. This was a chance to inspect the very smallest details - from kitchen fittings and flat furnishings to choices of brick - as well as to understand the larger picture and the lessons that Quintain itself has learned, and continues to learn, in creating the UK’s largest, purpose-built, residential project.
Concrete VC: proptech showcase
GRI Club Real Estate members combined with GRI Tech Club for a look at the latest proptech. Hosted in the rooftop atrium of Concrete Venture Capital’s co-working office, located within London’s Tech City neighbourhood, property was shown from new angles and in valuable new ways through an afternoon series of proptech presentations by Concrete VC-backed start-ups Data was the common theme, but as Chris Stephenson, partner of Concrete VC, reminded participants on the tour: ‘Data is the new oil.’
From Bird.i came high-grade satellite imagery that claims to beat Google Maps hands down if you want fresh, detailed images to track construction progress, or roof maintenance requirements, for example. District Technologies, on the other hand, focuses on the way people experience buildings and how, through data collection, that experience can be improved, all through their user experience (UX) app. Disruptive Technologies provides a toolbox of micro-sensors, each the size of a scrabble tile, that replace people with clipboards and enable property managers to monitor and maintain their buildings - even knowing when to replace the paper towel in the bathrooms. And Measurabl, through its precision software, brings together and normalises non-financial but critical environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, increasingly required by sustainability investors and asset managers.
King’s Cross: mixed-use regeneration
GRI Club Real Estate members made their way through crowds, crossed busy roads, and took in the street circus skills, all within Argent’s 67-acre King’s Cross redevelopment project.
Slightly smaller than the Wembley Park scheme, but at a more mature stage, this was a chance to compare progress of large-scale, mixed-use regeneration schemes. Argent’s Tom Goodall, who trained as an architect and was responsible for delivery of the residential side of King’s Cross - including the luxury apartments built inside the iconic gasholders, which were inspected as part of the tour - described the twists and turns of the development’s long, 18-year history. It is a story of pragmatism, resourcefulness and perseverance, founded on important strategic decisions - such as the insistence on opening up a central, public thoroughfare, which entailed knocking down one of the twenty listed structures across the site. Now more than 65% built in terms of built area, King’s Cross can look forward to welcoming Google and Facebook into their UK headquarters.
Pocket Living: affordable living
Pocket Living’s property development in Lambeth offered surprisingly large and comfortable homes, considering that each unit was based only 37m2 of space (space maximisation was a keen matter of interest for all participants throughout the tour). Of all the projects visited, this was perhaps the one that could provide most lessons on how to approach affordable living developments.
In contrast to other schemes in London - where 35% of units must qualify as affordable (and there had been talk of the Mayor of London demanding 50% levels of affordability) - Pocket Living’s schemes are 100% affordable, with its units sold at 20% below market average, which gives their projects a certain flexibility in other respects. Affordability remains a debatable topic - the average salary in London is approximately £38,000, while Pocket Living’s criteria for would-be buyers is that they must earn under £90,000, must live or work in the borough, and must be a first-time buyer. Pocket Living are passionate about their cause of creating high quality products at affordable prices, in order to keep ‘citymakers’ in London. An approach that as some observed (in response to a common issue across London) might also serve to simply keep rentees present, residential units occupied, and the community thriving.
London Fire Brigade HQ: mixed use regeneration
The London Fire Brigade headquarters is a listed, art deco building that occupies a prime position on the Albert Embankment. Big Ben - when not under wraps - sits in clear view across the River Thames. This is the building that U+I, the publicly-listed property developer that specialises in urban regeneration, and that works in particular with public land through Public Private Partnerships, is planning to redevelop.
A U+I team, led by Eoin Condren, director of joint ventures at U+I, began the tour in the depot at the back of the 2.5 acre site - formerly used to maintain and restore fire engines - which was ringing to the sound of over a hundred school children engaged in learning activities. It is what U+I calls ‘worthwhile use’, as opposed to ‘meanwhile use’, extending to a pop-up museum on emigration and artist workshops. Previous developers have failed to obtain planning permission, but here U+I, who go to planning with their mixed use scheme in February 2019, have sought to engage the local community over the last two or three years. They are actively seeking feedback and trying to understand the heritage of the site, which will retain a working fire station and include a Fire Brigade Museum.