First aired 1 February 2021
An online presentation – Creating Places for Science – by Doug Cuff of IQHQ and John Summerville of Creative Places.
Doug has over 20 years’ experience working in the life science real estate sector including in his native US and with BioRealty in the UK with the development of Granta Park. He is now Vice President of UK Real Estate for ICHQ. John is Managing Director of R&D property experts Creative Places and an expert is related property development having acted as a consultant on research developments around the UK.
With more than 100 science parks in the UK and with the UK Government’s ambitions for R&D Doug and John will cover the present and outline the future from their experienced perspective
Right we look like we’ve got um quite a number of participants joining good um good afternoon everybody um happy 1 of February um this is um a a webinar um regarding creating places for science um it’s an extremely topical subject there’s an awful lot of uh conversation
Generally going on at the moment between uh with with real estate providers um landlords um occupiers around what what looks like great science space at the moment and we’re blessed in Cambridge obviously to have a a huge amount of um fantastic locations um on the call on
The webinar today um we’ve got some really great people who really understand their um subject matter um we’ve got John Somerville from creative places who’s um well known to a lot of people in canbridge um John is um the managing partner of creative places um he’s a real estate advisor it’s a
Business that’s been specifically set up to advise clients on developing and investing in commercial space focused specifically on R&D facilities um the practice has worked with um a number of clients including seven of the UK’s top universities including Cambridge and three quarters of the UK’s major hospitals um John and his team have
Advised on um babam biosciences and their research campus Evolution and also with Cambridge medy Park um and the partners um in terms of the development of the next phase of the Cambridge biomedical campus John’s been in Cambridge as a lot of you will know for over 25 years and he’s very much looking
Forward to seeing everybody when lockdown finishes um Doug cuff um again a number of you will known from his time at bomade reality um he is currently the vice president of the UK real estate for iqq um he spent over 20 years um working in the real estate sector specifically
In life sciences prior to um iqq as I mentioned Doug has been working with biomade realy um he was responsible for overseeing a million square feet of um life science real estate portfolio in Cambridge Massachusetts uh Doug then U moved across to uh uh see the completion and
Operation of um the center of life science in Boston which is an 18 story first class R&D facility and houses major research groups such as uh the Children’s Hospital in Boston the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Danna farba Cancer Institute Doug did spend some time in Cambridge in 2012 um
And was involved in the acquisition of Grant Park uh he also expanded the UK portfolio there um by negotiating two build suits at Grant Park along with closing out partnership with the biotechnology and biological sciences research Council bbsl C for short um Doug has an MBA in Business
Administration um from the University in Boston and a BSC in biological sciences from the foran University in New York city so without any further Ado and we’ve got a great list 127 attendees so far um over to John um to kick off um his presentation which will then be
Followed by Doug just to say if you have got questions during the course of um this um webinar then please by all means use the chat function um on Zoom um and uh we’ll we’ll either we we basically deal with questions um towards the end of this presentation but um ready when
You are John thanks Alison and good afternoon everyone um so I’m going to sort of do the first introductory Talk of the session today um really just wanting to touch on um what we’re seeing as some of the drivers of demand for R&D real estate across the world but particularly
With a context of of Cambridge um then to talk about what that’s meaning in terms of demand for floor space um in our city and to touch on a couple of the developments that are taking place um in terms of innovation districts so the first um Trend that I wanted to
Talk about and one that’s really having a major impact on the choices that R&D businesses are making in terms of their locations uh is around open Innovation and this is a concept that an American academic Henry chesra developed in observing the way that major R&D businesses um were choosing where toate
Their facilities and how they were undertaking R&D if you could all just make sure you’re on mute um because I’m getting a bit of background sound so this is the slide is showing you the way that businesses were undertaking R&D so they were effectively taking the Science and Technology based
The research side and they were developing products and services themselves through this Innovation funnel to then get to the their target market and it was very much then around having um secure and sometimes remote sites on which their own people were working on developing products and services and and coming up with new
Ideas and what chesra observed was that companies were moving to more of an an open Innovation um model where you can see that they were then um building on their own internal technology base and taking on ideas from others and then through the Innovation process were uh generating revenue from some of the
Ideas part of the way through the process by by licensing them out or spinning out companies or entering into joint ventures and broadening the range of the potential Target markets for their Innovation so they were looking to develop products and services more efficiently more speedily and with with
Better outcomes and this is having a major impact on on where companies then choose to locate they’re very very much wanting to be in locations where there is a broad range of partners with which they can collaborate uh where they can draw on a a wider range of of initial
Research and where they can find Partners across different sectors to then um use the technology that they develop in a number of different ways and so we’re seeing really strong growth in demand for those locations in the world where there is a good breadth and depth of um sector expertise and
Research expertise and where businesses can find they can partner with a number of companies as well as really strong universities and research institutions and here in Cambridge astroica is a really good example of open innovation in practice and how they moved from their secure site up in in Oley uh odley
Park on the edge of Manchester um to choose to be in a location where they were right amongst some leading uh research and clinical institutions as well as businesses that they could then partner with and you can see in the text at the bottom that they have already um
Built a number of col coll orations with people like the MRC with their laboratory of molecular biology which you can see on the left hand side of this image and with cancer re research UK and Cambridge University as well as with um businesses that are located in the
City second Trend that we’ve seen is the way that businesses are are diversifying um their their R&D activity and and moving into into novel sectors so three examples here of of of that in practice verily is an organization that Google’s parent company alphabet set up and is taking some of the technologies that
Google had developed and applying that into Healthcare applications Microsoft who’ve had a facility in Cambridge for a number of years uh have been partnering with Adam Brooks hospital to again use their technology into Healthcare delivery and Samsung who we would associate with TVs and fridges and the like um they’ve established their Artificial
Intelligence Center uh over the road from Microsoft in Station Road and employed Professor Andrew Blake who was formerly the head of Microsoft’s Cambridge research lab to to really take that that facility forward and we’re seeing a lot of growth in the way that um different sectors are coming together data science artific artificial
Intelligence medical Technologies coming together to find novel applications so again if you’re a company that’s in a location where there is really good strength across a number of different sectors it opens up more opportunities for you to use the technologies that you’ve developed to apply them to novel
Areas just on this third area the third Trend that we’re seeing is the growth in what’s called Innovation districts so location of R&D in more urban locations rather than on more sort of rural or or edge of city um science parks and the the graphic is showing some outputs from
Uh research that we jointly commissioned with bidwells was undertaken by yugov who uh interviewed uh senior R&D Personnel in 50 of the the eu’s top R&D Spenders and you can see that their number one choice in terms of locations was now a city district location and that’s why we’re seeing places like
King’s cross down in London and uh the Station Road area in Cambridge really coming to the four in terms of these technology businesses enabling them to um have better access to to other um amenities that their staff can enjoy it’s easier for their staff to get into work and
Where there is then an easier way that they can collaborate with others and from the same survey um we asked them to to rank their hierarchy of facilities that were important to them and you can see really strikingly that public transport hubs was was the number
One uh Choice enabling them as I say to get people in and and and staff in uh to be able to recruit and retrain retain the best people um and be able to partner with others and when we looked at the top considerations for location decisions alongside that ease of
Recruiting and retaining staff it was really important to them to have good data connectivity and you can see within the range of the way that data science is coming to the for in a number of this these different areas that’s important but also particularly that there’s availability of property to grow their
Activities so they’re wanting to be in locations where they they know if they want to grow and grow quickly that there is opportunity for in terms of real estate delivery for them to to be able to do that and just building on that um we did
Some work with Med City um back in 2016 um looking at the demand for healthcare R&D U premises in London and these were the results from from that survey um asking businesses where they wanted to be different location types and you can see that locations close to or on Hospital sites and close
To uh academic research sites were seen as really important for those Health Healthcare R&D businesses to be able to best um partner with those Organizations final Trend I wanted to touch on was about um company funding uh and what we’ve seen through 2020 um despite or perhaps because of the pandemic is a record year in terms of funding for healthcare R&D activity these this is um information from CB insights uh recent state of healthcare
Report and you can see that 2020 exceeded um previous years uh with over 80 billion of new funding into uh companies from from a variety of sources looking across the world you can see how uh this is quarter by quarter in recent years how Asia in particular has seen
Significant growth in in uh in 2020 but there’s been growth in North America and Europe as well as as um companies as investors sorry are looking to to understand how they can get involved in in R&D and seeing the benefits of healthcare R&D in particular and just looking at some
Other SE sectors um artificial intelligence in healthc care is similarly seeing a significant growth in in funding uh as these range of sectors start to come together to deliver better outcomes and when we look at Cambridge um yeah here’s a few examples of companies that have recently raised
Money um therapeutic companies in drug Discovery such as Ren Ren Therapeutics and bit bio uh bit bio based down at babam uh riverlane which is a Quantum Computing software company um and also um Kima being acquired by sopi to become cambridge’s um 20th billion valuation company what do that mean in terms of
Demand for floor space well this graph shows you the um registered requirements with bidwells uh over the last 15 years or so looking at office space in blue and laboratory space in Orange um you can see that the trend line in both cases is for Rising demand
Uh obviously quite a a steep rise in demand in 13 14 and 15 for office space uh which has tailed off a bit but which is uh in terms of um demand registered is still maintained despite the pandemic good levels and for laboratory space 2020 saw an increase in in the number of
Registered requirements and overall we’re seeing uh when you look at the average requirements in the first eight years of this of this table in the last eight years that there is quite significant growth in the need for floor space for Laboratories in the Cambridge market and when you put in the context
That at the moment there’s uh recorded only around 880,000 square feet of available laboratory space uh you can see um that there is a real need to continue to deliver this type of space in the city so I just wanted to touch on two um Innovation districts that have been
Under development and are emerging in the city and are making quite a difference in terms of cambridge’s offer to R&D activity uh so this is a a shop from the south side of uh from viewed from the south looking towards Adam Brooks hospital and cancer research UK’s
Facility as well as long road six sixth form College uh and with the Cambridge Mainline Railway uh running down the left hand side so this was a photograph that was taken in 2008 uh when the land would had just been released from the green belt and planning consent was secured and when we
Look forward to 2019 uh we see quite a transformation in that location as as those familiar with Cambridge would have seen so we’ve seen the mrc’s laboratory of molecular biology um the so-called Nobel Prize Factory uh being constructed and built and opened in around 2010 Astro’s new main R&D facility which we
Hope will open this year um being built alongside some further land that they have and and are securing planning consent to expand on new P withth hospital and alongside of which there is now a heart and lung research institute which is under construction um land that Cambridge University have acquired for research
Facilities and a new building for abcam um which was opened um in about uh 20 18 and just looking at the remaining uh land under development Adam Brooks control quite a lot of the land now and have plans for a new children’s hospital and a sort of Redevelopment of some of
The space that they’ve got on their old 1960s campus a project they’re calling Adam Brooks 3 and on the second phase of the site we have consent or there is consent for around half a million square feet of further commercial R&D activity alongside uh more land for clinical
Activity and the next building that is uh due to come through is this one it’s called a thousand Discovery Drive uh which secured a resolution to Grant planning permission uh about 10 days ago uh it’ll comprise around 100,000 square feet of laboratory and office accommodation over five stories and it’s
Hoped that construction of that building will start uh later this year the second Innovation District that I wanted to touch on was is West Cambridge um a somewhat outdated image this time from roughly the center of Cambridge looking to the West so you’ve got the M11 Motorway in the distance and
Cambridge University’s landh holding here which comprised at the time predominantly academic departments including the vet school the old Cavendish laboratory the computer laboratory uh on on this side of Cambridge and the university is in the process of securing consent for around 4 million square feet of additional development partly to create more
Academic space uh and partly so that it can uh create space for commercial R&D Partners to sit alongside these World leading academic departments and further the collaboration between business and Academia and the university is already under construction on its new cadish laboratory and share facilities hub and
Has appointed a design team to progress the design for three new buildings for commercial R&D two on this western side and an innovation Center alongside some existing commercial space so we’re seeing in Cambridge some significant new developments that will come through and and meet some of the demand that’s coming through for commercial
R&D that draws me to an end for my initial presentation um so Alison I don’t know whether we want to move straight through to Doug um yeah I’ve got a couple of questions but I think I think if we um if we move straight on thanks so much
John that was really informative um Doug if we could um if we could um get going with yours um which is slightly different format um fingers crossed it will uh it’ll load up okay fingers crossed here we go can you see this you see my screen now it’s a yes it’s a big
All right so uh good afternoon everyone it’s uh I I think I know a good a good portion of the group I’m really excited to kind of re-engage with everyone and talk to everyone and kind of talk about the new Venture and kind of talk about
Give you a very it’s GNA be a very fast uh uh tour uh uh uh of our four million square feet that we have under development today um so this was a presentation that was done um I can’t take credit for it um it was done uh for
Our last uh Capital raise which we raised 1.7 billion so it it clearly worked and impressed some people which is which is good news um so this is the team uh I think a lot of people will recognize a lot of people on the on this team
Um get that out the way um Tracy Murphy is’s our president she used to run the West Coast for biomed reality uh John banana was the chief and chief um for bed he was the uh he was a VP of Leasing and development and when I was at granta
Are reported directly to John Alan gold is our our chairman currently and he was the founder of Alexandria which is the largest life science uh developer they have about 38 million square feet over the US uh and Canada uh and then Steve Rosetta uh is our CEO and Steve was um
We kind of develop a good work relationship with him when he was working for kushman Wakefield and represented alumina and Ashley was um the SAT across the table from us when we did the the deal at granted Park um with with aluminum uh so that’s kind of the
Team uh we’ve been together now for about 18 months uh our total Capital raise is 2.4 billion we have projects in San Francisco San Diego Boston Cambridge and the last leg of the stool is Cambridge uh also you know we’re also look at Oxford and London but uh we
Think hopefully Cambridge will be our first step into the market um which is here’s our portfolio here kind of the our trophy our trophy pieces is the rad which stands for research and development District in downtown San Diego uh which we’ll see later on and then the Fenway Center which sits
Directly across the street from Fenway Park in Boston uh which I think for this this forum will be particularly interesting because we’re building 900,000 square feet spectively over an eight Lane Highway U which is which is which is uh really amazing uh um so you talk about Transit uh what John
Kind of mentioned before you’ll see that Boston actually doesn’t have that sophisticated a Transit line uh it has four lines um which is this is what it is and the fway center actually sits on top of the green line which is right you can see the yellow star that’s where that
Is right so let’s zoom in thank you for Google Earth uh into Boston so Boston and the and the surrounding markets uh there’s about 30 million square feet of life science space a laboratory space that includes the suburbs um and our first real project was the Fenway Center
Which sits right here and it sits you can um see the the the star there so it sits between two Bridges uh and we hope to start construction any any any day now which we have to build a deck over the over the highway and then build a
Car park and then build the two building buildings it’s two towers actually and um uh that’s going to be about a fouryear build uh a fouryear build uh hang on let me move to the I’ve gone too far let me go back it I’ll show you the CGI of the
Building so if anyone’s been to our website you probably would have seen this hopefully it comes up there it is so basically now the this here so you have the train line on your right that also is the Am track uh which is the um
Goes from Boston to New York City uh and then this is the kind of the artery that runs east to west through Massachusetts and as you drive into Boston this will be what you see you can see it’s two buildings there’s one in the foreground and one in the background and on the
Sixth floor there’s an amenity deck uh which we have a whole host of amenities from from a bar that looks into the ballpark to Yogo Studio a sushi bar um we’re still kind of programming it now um and then a mechanical floor uh up on 13 uh and then the highrise there these
Two buildings um are also part of the project they’re not ours they’re two residential Towers um but this is these two buildings are ours right here um so this is this is the Back Bay neighborhood this is a very famous Sito sign um and you kind of look where it
Sits in relation this is Kendall Square over here and this is mit’s campus so it sits quite nicely between MIT and Longwood Medical area um which is here’s downtown Boston um the common and this is kind of the financial districts back in here and this is Back Bay there on
Your right and then I think we pivot to look down at the Longwood Medical area and this is the view of the building so if you’re on the 17th 18th floor of the building this will be your view so you actually should be able to see the
Entire ballpark uh during game day uh which I think is pretty pretty pretty cool um pretty exciting and then the next building that we acquired was right next door it actually buts us it’s 109 Brookline uh which is has this parking lot here and then these two buildings it’s actually
Two buildings 109 Brookline which is there and then 2026 Overland Street there um over the last year um we’ve worked uh to actually V 109 Brookline uh which actually had two companies in uh one was a software company called to um and they actually never they actually
Never occupied so we just did a straight termination with them and then the other group that’s in there was our friends at Beth Israel Medical deaconness Center um the same group that uh same people that I used to deal with over at the center of Life of Science Boston which is way
Out here in the for in the background um so we have the DeCamp people out of there we will now in the we’re going through the planning process to add more density here uh uh and uh that building now is 290 square feet total this side
Is about 100,000 square feet and we’re g to take it to about 14 15 stories uh uh and about four to 500,000 square feet so really adding some serious density uh and then actually adding underground parking underneath so between the two buildings we’ll have over a million
Square 1.4 1.5 million square feet uh just in this neighborhood uh which is really U really exciting and and we don’t see any new uh uh any stop for demand um which is which is again I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I haven’t seen the amount of capital going into
The sector uh like like we’re seeing now here’s more of an overhead view not the most attractive building um we actually did take off all the mechanical equipment on this deck here and it’s now a rooftop deck which we’re actually opening it up to the public and then
There is a foot path psychopath that kind of goes from the back of the building down into uh down into Brook line which is the which is the neighborhood next door store you can kind of get a better view of how it sits here’s fway here’s 109 Brookline and
We’re trying to create an urban campus um Beth is your medical Deaconess owns this building here um and then there are rumors that they’re going to actually dispose of that uh in the next three to four months so we’re in a prime position to pick that up as well so stay stay
Tuned um but there’s a lot of people are going to be chasing it as well okay so we’ll pull back and then we’ll go over to Cambridge uh we’re kind of sitting on the MIT campus um over the summer during during the height of the pandemic we actually acquired a 27 Acre
Site um in West Cambridge uh which is at the end of the red line uh which is known as the brain train because it goes through it starts at aif then goes down into David Square which is where tough is which is over here U and then goes
Into Harvard Square and then into to MIT in Kendall Square uh but this site sits U quite nicely and it’s actually the best located site in all in all OFA wife we’ll zoom in over here so this is the kind of the know this area is known as Fresh Pond and Al
Wife um Al wife that’s our project there that is the train stop there and then this is where over here is where all of the competition is and so if you take the train to alif and you need to go to Fresh Pond you need to walk across this
Bridge uh and to get there it’s about a mile and a half two miles in a day like today when we’re going to get nine inches of snow it’s not the best not the best commute uh our project is the train line actually the the platform actually
Sits beneath that the star and so we will have the closest uh site to the um to to the train which for a commuter is probably the best case scenario so the company that owns the site now you can see the buildings here uh is a group called gcp Technologies
And they actually make binding agents for concrete and for um for for for joining uh substrates that for the construction industry so really you know they’re sitting on a goal mine of real estate Without Really realizing it they’ve been there for over 50 years and so they’ve had a change of leadership
And then realized that they really shouldn’t be in Cambridge that they probably should be out um in the suburbs so they were were able to grab this site um kind of off market and uh begin to redevelop it it is controversial site because you can see that it sits around
A lot of residential groups um which we think we’re going to improve uh their quality of life mainly by building nicer buildings these are all singl story brick old tired buildings this is this Pond here as known as Jerry’s Pond it is contaminated we’re hoping to clean it up
And give more public access to it and really open up the campus um for for the general public which which is pretty exciting gcp is in these buildings till the end of the year uh which gives us time to go through planning which we’re doing right now and we’ve actually just
Submitted uh our first we had our first public consultation so now we can actually share with you the um what the buildings are going to look like and what we’re trying to do uh which is pretty exciting but is here so right now it’s uh right now
There’s about 100,000 square feet on the campus we’re going to add another six so it’s going to be about a 700 ,000 squ foot project uh with a car park in the back um you really can see that you know the lowrise buildings four or five
Stories uh at the most which is really good efficient floor plates we don’t lose a lot of shaft space so you it just it works really well um we also don’t want it to be dominating over the neighborhood so we haven’t changed any we haven’t gone for a variance we
Haven’t changed any of the planning we hope it’s not going to be a controversial uh project it shouldn’t be and uh you know we hope that get started you know next January this time next year um the next CGI is of the kind of the
Streetscape so we want to add a bunch of retail to the ground floor um restaurants bars supermarkets gyms all the amenities there is a um there’s a very famous cycle path that goes actually from this this site up through Arlington into Lexington and Concord and if you uh are a history buff
Particularly in the Revolutionary war that as is the site the route that Paul Rivier took when when the British were coming the British were coming so we’re actually going to activate that and use that as well Cambridge similar to Cambridge uh England Ash is a very heavily cycled City and so we we’re
Actually doing a lot uh trying to steal a lot from what was done in uh in Cambridge England and kind of incorporated into this project as well with a with a sizable bicycle Park um located on the campus so that’s that’s uh our Massachusetts portfolio very quickly we’ll quickly zip over to San
Francisco um we have one project that’s currently in development now on debuk and then we actually we last week we just closed on another project uh I can show you where it is I don’t have any of the um cgis yet because we’re still kind
Of in design um we like to uh we like to highlight Kilroy and and and bed because our our team are former employees of that and we think these projects are actually better situated than those um so uh this is debuk right here you can
See there is this is the San sou San Francisco um not the BART but it’s the commuter rail that kind of runs through and this is off the 15 of the 101 I’m sorry the 15’s on the other side um so this project we bought it is uh sits
Right AC on top of the train station um and it’ll be about 3 to 400,000 square feet we’re looking to add more density um sanan Francisco is is it hang on we should be loading this we’re going to drill down into it as we Zoom down into
The project itself you can see how it is currently under construction um this building here is a Lowe’s which is like a b and Q uh kind of of for HomeGoods and then these three buildings back here these are all Warehouse kind of sheds that were converted into life sciences and this is
What we just acquired um last week and we look to probably knock those down and then build another life science campus here and hopefully expand into this one this one to kind of pull all three projects together um in a perfect world we’ll see if that that works but you can
See where this sits um perfectly situated off the train line off the highway um very easy access for for for all um for all the employees there yeah now we’re get right down onto the onto the streetcape and then the next slide will be the CGI if I’m correct
Yes and this is a perkus and will Design um so we’re very you know looking forward to to get cracking on this and then add something very similar to the other three Parcels three buildings that I I showed earlier uh now we’ll pull out a s San Francisco and we’ll ZIP down the
Coast uh to San Diego uh and this is kind of our iconic uh project uh located on the kind of Charlie train line in San Diego and about five minutes from the airport uh it is a bit of a groundbreaking um project because most of the sector
Actually kind of sits up here by Tory Pines and University Town Center kind of up along the beach um and there’s not much there’s not much downtown this is downtown San Diego here um and what ends up happening is that Executives that fly in well then then have to land and then
Take the five uh High the highway up which could take you you know it’s not very far uh but it could take you in the height of Rush Hour you know anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours um well our project actually sits perfectly
It’s about with traffic it’s about 7 minutes from from the airport uh and right downtown and kind of building what John was saying earlier it actually um uh it’s really close to uh Urban living and apartment buildings and whatnot um it actually sits directly across the street from the USS Midway
Which is a uh an aircraft carrier now it’s a um it’s a museum it was built post World War II uh and the project actually has to incorporate a a new headquarter building for the Navy uh which has a very sizable presence in San Diego to the north you can see the
Airport so it really is just one road down down the water line here uh which is pretty neat this project is in two phases about one .4 million square feet um the original developer uh is a group called Manchester uh and they they needed they needed you know when when
When covid hit and the office Market fell apart uh they needed a partner because they uh they he couldn’t get his financing to to build his office that he wanted to build uh so we came in and then suggested life science and he’s able to retain he’s able to build his
The Navy Building and then he’s also building a hotel uh which we think is very additive to our project you can see this is the view from the Midway directly across the street anyone that’s seen Top Gun the famous bar where Tom Cruz is singing actually is right
There U the when he sings the Everly Brothers uh song and you can see the trolley right here as well so it’s very well connected close the airport uh and we think you’re very and this is all downtown uh San Diego so we think it’s a
Very exciting project um and you can see this this is us we’re actually on the ground uh moving today so we’re looking to deliver that in the next 18 to 24 months uh if things go the way they should and then you’ll see this is the
Overhead of that project so we’re at 2A 2B 3A 4 a this is the Navy Building and here’s the hotel uh so we get these uh five Parcels that we’re going to to build um phase one is 4 B and 4 a and then phase two is these three buildings
Uh and we actually had so much demand and so much interest we’re actually contemplating building the whole thing out at once uh which could be really uh exciting as well and here’s some to end on to end we’ll give you a couple cgis of to the Quality uh that we’re that
We’re going to build to um you know these are the the five bu this is the amenity Center that deck right there we’re hoping to put in a sushi bar kind of Overlook in the Midway which would be pretty cool um and you can see it’s very
You know very walk P the downtown s Diego uh and this is the view from the water um and it’s the only life it’s the only commercial space in San Diego that will have uh views of the water um it’s because of the relationship with the
Navy um so that’s us in a in a nutshell from from trying to build on what John was saying I think if you look at what his his takeaways uh you can see that we’re in the US we’re very positioned to to do that uh trying to build high
Quality buildings close to transit to to attract that next um kind of that Workforce and access the talent uh all of our projects We Believe that and we look to do that continue to do that as we expand our footprint that’s really great Doug thanks so so much for that um helicopter
View of um of of the US and your um your footprint that you’re you’re creating over there that’s that’s that’s superb um there’s some questions that have um have come in um the first one if I may for John um where do you see the S top five
Locations in terms of demand for life science space or science relation space generally at the moment in the UK um well I think we would see that the Golden Triangle if I could call out three locations so Oxford Cambridge and London we we’re we’re definitely seeing companies wanting to locate to and and
There are ecosystems that are supporting growth of companies that is then attracting investors in companies and investors in real estate so a lot of the people that are now turning their attention to particularly the life sciences R&D sector uh are looking at Oxford Cambridge and London there’s a
Lot of um interest in those locations um sort of within that area there’s quite an interesting um uh location growing in stevenage around gsk’s campus in terms of sell and gene therapy particularly uh and we’re seeing some new developments happening there to support that sector uh and then other than that um there’s
There’s a strong cluster in Manchester around the Oxford Road uh alongside the universities in the hospital there and and some floor space has been brought forward in terms of laboratory space there and further is planned uh and then probably I’d then go to somewhere like Edinburgh or Glasgow
Um again locations where there is strong research base where there has been strong public sector support and and where there is a sort of burgeoning sector that is that is growing and and building around these clusters of of of of leading hospitals and leading Academia that’s great thanks very much
Um I’ll just quickly wiiz on to the chat um session here um Sarah Mason’s rais a question with sustainability being at the Forefront of all our minds how do you approach this vision of Highly efficient buildings and the inspiration for net carbon zero I assume that is that one for
Me it is you do want to take it John I can give you my perspective um so the yes so we you know we’re actually when we do our design and most of the most of what I’ve showed you today is actually done by gendler uh and and several
Pirate members a lot of the same team that did the illuminous center um so we we’re looking to try and make the buildings as as efficient as possible I you know the higher you go up the the taller you build the less efficient the building becomes from a life of science
Perspective because of of the ducting and the shaft work um for net carbon Zero from a constructibility standpoint it’s almost a requirement now the that the tenants in the market and and and because the end users they want they want green efficient buildings the challenges that we really face is when
The buildings operate and when they’re when they’re kind of on a day-to-day basis because they are energy Hogs and they use um a lot of a lot of energy and a lot of um uh so there are ways and we you know it’s almost have to have a true
Partnership when you’re looking at it with with with occupiers to try and and offset those costs and then there’s a lot of new technologies out there that actually uh will lower lower the um your energy usage uh it’s something that we talk about and try and grapple with
Every day uh and it it is going to be a challenge for for the sector because of of the safety requirements that are necessary for for lab buildings yeah I agree with that completely I think for laboratory buildings in particular um with the amount of of mechanical and electrical plant and and
Indeed moves towards laboratory automation these are energy hungry buildings excuse me that it it means it is very difficult to move towards those areas but we absolutely see occupiers across the whole range of of R&D sectors getting more and more interested in sustainability and in the green credentials or the building because the
People that they want to attract and uh to to work for them absolutely see it as a as an important priority so it’s an area that across different disciplines all developers and all investors will need to be focusing more and more on great thanks John and Doug um Doug
I’ve got one for you I mean looking at the Fenway Center in particular is it’s it’s pretty it’s it’s a scale that probably isn’t been even considered yet over in the UK um and as you mentioned you know the net the the net to gross efficiency the higher you get the harder
It is so I was just GNA say how how do you make that work commercially yeah so it it I mean it to when you when you break it down take back to its fundamental the the the measurement standard in in the US is is is a group called Bulma right so a
Building operation maintenance Association so it’s very similar to R bricks uh and then when the the when the sector kind of first began no one knew where a lab building would should fit it’s not an office it’s not a shed but they just threw it into shed so the
Original measurement standard was done was done U you know per you know per an industrial unit which is which is essentially to the Gia uh which is what you kind of get for a single a single tenant uh building in in Cambridge when the center for life of Science Boston
Was built and that was a designed built by a group called line properties uh that’s they Chang the measurement standard and how that building is measured because financially it wouldn’t work you wouldn’t get the financing it wouldn’t it just wouldn’t work um there’s no way that anyone would ever
Fund that on an ni to Gia because it’s not an efficient building in any sense the any sense the word um you know that building has um a Gia essentially of 74,000 square feet the Nia is about 500 so there’s 200,000 square feet that’s lost um but what David Clen and lime did
Actually was to Define it themselves um and and so now everyone pays a praus share of the mechanical space uh everyone you know if a tenant on the second floor they pay for the shaft space that runs through every floor up to the mechanical room to ventilate so
That is part of their that’s part of their rent they pay for that um so they were the first ones to kind of set that then when when l then when biomed came into the market in in 2004 2005 and alexanda began to grow they wrote their
Own measurement standards um uh which is very based on that but very similar and and and that is kind of the way forward we’ve now drafted our own measurement standards uh for that same purpose and we don’t use Bulma we use we use our own
Uh but when you have a market of 30 million square feet with another 18 come to Market in the next five to 10 years you can kind of get away with that uh so I think the UK and Ricks needs to have a hard think about how how it’s going to
Work because you just you won’t get that scale because it won’t work it just you won’t you know any developer unless it’s an institution you look at the cek right that’s a million square feet and it’s one of the most inefficient buildings uh I from a from a developer perspective
That I’ve ever seen but it’s it’s beautiful don’t get me wrong I think it’s amazing but but uh no developer would ever build that building because you the atriums are just so massive uh and your net to gross is probably tremendous I don’t know what it is but
I’m sure it’s tremendous so that that’s kind of the that’s how you get away with it uh and how how you know how I would like to see that that measurement standard get get adjusted and and and tweak because then you’re gonna you’ll see five six seven story lab buildings
Coming to Cambridge and Oxford and to London and Manchester and places like that yeah I think that um you RS have obviously moved towards the international um property me measurement standard for offices but there isn’t an equipment for laboratory space and actually in Cambridge which is which is
Arguably the most developed Market in the UK in terms of laboratory floor space that’s been delivered and deliver in Europe I would say in Europe it has you know it’s four million square feet there’s no nothing like it in Europe yeah so so we have built a an
Understanding across a range of of professional practices as to how to analyze and understand um you know deals that are struck on those sort of buildings but it’s by no means you know reached the point where um yeah there is a a sort of set agreed basis for analyzing these transactions
And I mentioned earlier how we’re seeing a lot of new investors coming to the sector and one of the things they’re really Keen to understand is how on Earth do we do we compare you know one transaction with another so that we can in the same way when we’re investing in
Retail warehouses or sheds or or office space we can really get our heads around um you know the nature of transactions that are happening in the market and I think we’ve still got a way to go to develop that sort of structure to help investors then come in and and and you
Know come into the sector yes it’s been it’s been a discussion Doug and I have been having for for over a few even a long time um I’ve got I’ve got another one here from um from John Blair um Can Cambridge UK deal with infrastructure expansion that’s required to complete in this sector
Worldwide that’s a question question yeah I think um there’s no doubt that the city authorities and the mayor have recognized that um for Cambridge to continue to grow you know it’s a small city which which is a benefit it’s only about four or five miles across um but for it to really
Grow and achieve its full potential we need to to to be investing in infrastructure to connect some of these Innovation districts together and to enable people to to to be able to find somewhere to live and get into work relatively easily and you know the the
Metro System will be a a you know a great system to come forward it’s just the amount of time it will take to get there but steps like Network rail now really progressing the Cambridge South Station and the East West rail system being um you know receiving further
Funding to deliver means that it might take us a few years but I think there is significant recognition at a national level that we need to be investing in infrastructure in Cambridge to to really make the most of the the Fantastic assets that we’ve got in the
City yeah I I would I would tend to agree I think when you look at life science it it has been the beacon for central government now for for at least the last two years uh and Cambridge and Oxford are kind of kind of at the
Forefront of that um and so there is a a big push to improve infrastructure I I would say um the one thing that sometimes doesn’t get uh discussed too much is really is the grid the electrical grid and the amount of demand we talked about Net Zero and Opera in
These buildings that’s my biggest concern I think you know I think people will come up with Creative Solutions um on the on the Metro and in the travel point of view but if you don’t the I think the biggest risk that’s not really discussed is really can the grid handle
It um that that’s the one thing that that makes that keeps me awake at night I think everything else I think there’re Savvy enough Developers and good enough Builders uh you know that that that are are topnotch um but if the if the building blocks IE the grid can’t handle
It then you know then we’re in in for some uh for some trouble potentially hopefully not brilliant thanks both um we’ve got quite a few other questions actually that been coming in while we’ve um while we’ve been answering a few others um Andy Moffet here has said um do you
Expect covid to have a different effect on the need for laboratory and office spaces go on Doug you go first I was going to say well so using using Boston as a case study Boston right now has um in the office sector has three million square feet of suble space so that’s
Space you know available from from tenants and occupiers not direct from landlords so you layer that on top of what’s also available from landlords it’s it’s it’s numbers we haven’t seen since the uh the it and Tech bubble since the early 2000 late 90s um so that’s very concerning for for the local
Economy here um but the life sciences actually has gone from strength to strength uh on this U which is why you’re seeing you know 18 million square feet of of demand of Supply coming onto the market over the next um you know five to 10 years uh so I think what Co
Has really done has shed a light on uh the need for more research particularly as to the the future uh pandemics and what what could happen next and so I think I I just think there’s even going to be more more Capital more interest to make sure that we don’t that we don’t
Have to lift this nightmare again and then we get on our front foot uh and we can and and knock it back when it comes forward so I I I don’t I haven’t seen any any stop uh in capital uh which I don’t think there’ll be any I think the
Demand for space is still GNA continue to grow yeah certainly what we’re seeing is is um companies need laboratory space continuing to to acquire space throughout 2020 when some of the office um requirements were put on hold uh and that’s right across the country I was
Talking to someone who uh works for the company that acquired Astro’s old old site up near Manchester and she was saying that there was absolutely um growing demand for laboratory space um through throughout 2020 you know you need it’s not something you can do from
Home you you know you need need to be in in the laboratory space to do it and companies are getting more funding to enable them to to grow their activity and so are needing more floor space I think in terms of office space um companies are undoubtedly evaluating
How they occupy their space and with know potentially some more homeworking than they had before whether they need the same amount of space but yeah as per the remark that you made at the beginning Allison yeah I can’t wait to get back to the office I think that
People are finding that working at home is is good in Parts but is actually quite challenging in terms of communication and I’m sure businesses will see that they will want to when it’s safe to do so get people back into the office and and and and see that
Collaboration taking place you know in the way that it used to yeah I’d agree with you John I’m totally on board with your comments on that front um yeah especially the younger members of the team you know they there that that social side of um
Of of what they do as well is is absolutely key and that needs to kind of be in a in a collaborative space like um some of the great ones that are being um developed in Cambridge at the moment um I’m just mindful of time um this one’s
From Alexander GIS uh for John Andor Doug could you summarize the benefits of spatial proximity between different institutions I.E how is collaboration cross fertilization manifested spatially is it chance Encounters in communal areas proximity to each other’s meeting spaces or simply efficiency in shared services and utilities again what we pick up is that
Um by being in relatively close proximity there is greater opportunity for for chance meetings yes but particularly there is an opportunity to build trust TR um you know it’s easier to get together more regularly and sometimes more informally and that building of trust enables um Partners in different organizations whether it’s
Academic and commercial or commercial and Commercial to then work more more easily together and and people are voting with their feet and companies are voting with their feet in terms of where they then choose to be so that’s why these locations where you can attend networking events in the evening or find
Amenities that you might bump into people or be alongside Partners those locations are seeing the most demand whereas if you are near to and by near I mean you know a few miles away um but you can’t then access um space within say a sort of 10 or 20 minute um Journey
Time those locations are less to the four and I think I think it’s all around that trust piece yeah now to build upon that I mean when Pascal Sor you know was out you 2012 2013 when he was out when he just took the job at AZ and he had toured he
To his goal was to tour all of the different key research sites and when he got to Cambridge he was it was that kind of networking uh uh that really kind of blew him away and the collaboration that really blew him away uh when he came to
Visit and then when he went to the the site the enbrook site I mean it was this is where we need to be the mrc’s right there the hital is right there the med schools right there this is where we need to be go make it happen so he
Wanted to be as close as possible uh to to and to have those researchers you know be able to work in multiple buildings you can you know you can have a part-time person working a who’s also doing research off the MRC and doing other you know and working in the
Hospital at the same time you know that bench to bedside um is really important U so yeah I think to be as close as possible uh is is really the uh kind of the fundamental uh driver so I I do agree yeah it goes back to those location slides John that you were
Showing in terms of what the top five kind of important factors are um speaking of astroica I think we’ll we’ll finish on this question um slightly sensitive one um and it’s an interesting one to to debate I guess is um from Margaret Reynolds um what’s being done to prevent construction and contract
Delays like the astrazenica HQ I’ve got I’ve got my answer on that one but um I mean you go first Alison sorry you go first I think just to pick up on what doug was saying though that one you know Pascal said is got to happen and and sure enough um you know
He’s moved a hell of a lot of people into into Cambridge uh um you know while we’re waiting for that that facility to be um to be completed I mean my my view is really is really understand the market and make sure you got some good
Advice in terms of the like L successes and failures of the appropriate um form of procurement in in a nutshell um so there’s a number of reasons I think that’s not just about uh the size of that uh facility you know it is it is groundbreaking it’s going to be
A fantastic facility once occupied um but you know they he it was it was done very very quickly and it was done at a rate of knots um and and of a scale that I think um we probably won’t be seeing in Cambridge um anytime in in the near
Future um and it you know again I think regardless of the um you know the the overruns ETC once it once it’s actually finished it’s going to be a fantastic facility and one that the whole of Cambridge will will benefit from um but uh yeah get get your procurement uh
Strategy right from uh from the from the off from uh from the start but that’s my take well I would say outside of Cambridge no one really knows about about what’s going on with the headquarter building they’ve been so successful running their business and what they do that it doesn’t really it
Rarely hits the press and it hasn’t affect their stock price one bit despite the overruns and and the cost overruns and the delays I also would say that Astro zenica they’re not developers they’re not Builders you know they’re they’re scientists and they focus on impove improving The Human Condition so
It’s a little bit beyond their skill set not to say they don’t have the the staff and team to do it but I think I think when it’s not your core competency it becomes challenging and you go to your point Al about the speed and the size
And the scale you know it you know I’m not surprised that that they did have some challenges that the way that they did uh when you look at as to kind of how they how they set up the project and how they they run it um you know I know
A lot of the the team over there and they’re very impressive professionals but you know when it’s not your core competency and it’s not what your your your your company’s about you’re going to have some issues uh um so without going into too much depth but you know
Again on an international scale no one knows I mean it’s not no one talks about it it’s you know over here no it’s not even a thing because they’ve been so successful in other parts of their business yeah yeah I agree I agree I’m just mindful of time and we’re actually
Uh just just gone slightly over the hour slot um I think uh you know the comments that we’ve had through and and again Chris Chapman’s just um mentioned it’s been a great presentation and discussion um I think Doug you know looking forward to seeing you over in Cambridge UK um
You know we’re coming we’re coming I prom you’re clearly um you’re clearly doing some great things over in the um over in the US and that’s that’s an interesting one in terms of you know that’s um the you know the UK generally tries to um kind of feed off all the
Great stuff that’s happened over there so well done to iqq and and all the work that’s um happening over over there um and John you know great great set of slides again you know really focusing out on the market and kind of key trends that we’ve got going on in in in the
Science um and R&D Arena generally um and and really great to sort of get your insights on on that as well so um um I think without further Ado if I may just um say thank you again very much to both of you and um for everybody to have a
Really great afternoon if you’ve got any other queries I’m sure John and Doug and Doug would be um more more than happy to um to discuss them separately um outside of this uh session um I’m sure drop drop us a note and we’ll um we’ll do what we
Can to make sure that um that those questions get responded to so but thanks every so much everybody thanks