British Land to speak at 'Innovation Cities' in September

Above: Michael Wiseman of British Land (courtesy British Land)

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Michael Wiseman, British Land's new Head Innovation & Life Science will be joining our 'Innovation Cities' event at Here East. He will be speaking alongside Stephen Dance, Head of the Commercial Adviser team at the Infrastructure & Projects Authority.

Michael Wiseman is Head of Workspace Leasing and Innovation & Life Science at British Land.

In these roles Mike is responsible for customer engagement across existing workspace assets, development pipeline and Storey portfolios, and for ensuring that British Land’s product meets customers evolving needs. Simultaneously he leads British Land’s innovation and life science strategy, with responsibility for close to 2 million square feet of innovation assets and for helping establish British Land as the leading UK REIT in this sector.

Mike has been at British Land since 2011 and has previously worked as a Development Director, and more recently as Head of Office Leasing. He is a Trustee for Great Ormond Street Hospital and Chair of their Property and Development Committee. Mike has previously worked at ING Real Estate Development UK, Knight Frank and Oak Holdings. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

British Land has recently let 48,000 square feet of lab-enabled space to leading global life science company LGC at The Priestley Building, a highly sustainable re-development located at Surrey Research Park in Guildford. The letting is one of the largest life sciences deals in the UK this year and takes the building to 58% pre-let, ahead of practical completion later in 2023.

LGC will join a thriving community of over 200 companies at the Research Park, an established centre of excellence in technology, science, health and engineering, catering to start-ups through to multinationals.

The Priestley Building will deliver 90,000 square feet of energy efficient office and lab-enabled space. The development retains and reuses existing materials where possible, helping to achieve an ultra-low embodied carbon figure of below 150 kgco2e/m2. The base-build development will aim to achieve an EPC rating A as well as BREEAM Excellent. Efficient operation is achieved through maximising photovoltaic solar roof panels and retrofitting low carbon technology for the all-electric heating and cooling systems. The building will include bike, shower and fitness facilities.

British Land is increasingly focused on delivering best in class space for customers in high growth life science and innovation sectors in London and across the Golden Triangle (London, Oxford and Cambridge) where supply is constrained. The company has a significant potential pipeline of lab space located across its Regent’s Place, Canada Water and Cambridge assets, and expects to deliver around 190,000 square feet by the end of this financial year.

British Land has also unveiled plans to redevelop Euston Tower through an innovative combination of retention, re-use and an ultra-low carbon new structure. The plans would transform the building into a pioneering, modern, net zero workspace for cutting-edge businesses of all sizes, including new world-class, lab-enabled spaces at the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter.

Currently under discussion with Camden Council and other local stakeholders, the vision for Euston Tower will lead the way in low carbon retrofit and construction techniques, using inclusive design which creates high quality workspaces and continues to support the local community and economy. The current proposals will bring forward lab-enabled spaces for start-up and scale-up innovation businesses, as well as spaces for the local community to support education and training opportunities.

Leading the design are award-winning Danish architecture practice 3XN who have recently worked with British Land on Broadgate’s iconic 2FA. They are supported by London-based architecture and landscape studio DSDHA who re-designed much of Broadgate’s public realm, including Exchange Square. The team have drawn up designs which would retain elements of the original tower, including the foundations, basement and core, while transforming the building and surrounding area into a welcoming, accessible and creative new space. Leveraging British Land’s expertise in creating inclusive external spaces across its campuses, proposals for a new and improved public realm include large areas of greening and a space for events, while also providing opportunities for people to dwell and relax.

In line with British Land’s longstanding commitment to net zero development, the design’s sustainability strategy is based on retaining, re-using and re-cycling existing material, specifying low carbon and recycled materials where new is required and only using certified carbon offsets as an action of last resort. British Land is also actively exploring options for local certified carbon offsets, whereby they would seek to offset embodied carbon associated with materials in the existing building that cannot be reused or recycled by funding equivalent local carbon avoidance measures.

This multi-layered approach to net zero development aims to create a blueprint for the sustainable redevelopment of challenging, inflexible old buildings that can be used in the future. British Land is working with research institutes to test progressive ways of re-using elements of the building’s structure and intends to use its findings to help accelerate the real estate industry’s move towards net zero.

As the owner and operator of Regent’s Place for nearly 40 years, British Land has a long history of partnering with the London Borough of Camden and its communities, delivering new affordable homes and spaces for the local community, including a theatre and arts centre and affordable workspaces. Working collaboratively with its local partners, British Land has sought to make a long-lasting, positive social impact, pioneering new approaches to creating social value, including its innovative Regent’s Place Community Fund which has raised over £200,000 for community projects since its launch in 2016.

The building will not increase in height beyond its existing 100 metres, but the site will be improved to deliver better quality floor plates and public realm that respond to the growing needs of the Knowledge Quarter.