Lendlease Plans Life Sciences Push At £4B Euston Scheme

Developer Lendlease is planning to incorporate life sciences space in its huge redevelopment of Euston Station in central London, its first foray into the sector in the UK, Bisnow can reveal.

“We're planning a mash-up of science, arts and culture,” Lendlease Development Director for Euston Jenny Sawyer told the audience at Bisnow’s London Placemaking and Transit-Oriented Development event, held at JTRE’s Triptych Bankside scheme.

“We’re developing 6M SF at Euston, some of which will be homes, the rest of which will be a mix of uses, some of which will be life sciences,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said the company had not yet determined what proportion of the scheme would be given over to life sciences.

But building for the sector made sense, she said, given the wealth of scientific and educational institutions within a short walk of the development, including the Francis Crick Institute by King’s Cross Station, the Wellcome Trust medical research charity across the road, and the nearby University College London and University College teaching and research hospital.

Given the location of these facilities, the area around King’s Cross and Euston is fast becoming one of London’s major life sciences real estate clusters.

Stanhope and Mitsui Fudosan UK  are building a 600K SF life sciences-led scheme as part of their extension of the British Library, between King’s Cross and Euston. And in December 2021, Life Sciences REIT paid £77M, a 4.4% yield, for a King’s Cross building leased to companies including Gyroscope Therapeutics.

Lendlease won the right to redevelop 60 acres above and around Euston station in 2018. It is currently working on the masterplan for the scheme, but initial proposals called for building around 3.6M SF of office space, of which life sciences would form a part; 2,000 apartments; and 700K SF of retail and leisure space. The scheme will not be finished until 2040 or later. 

Sawyer said space aimed at creative and tech companies would also be a major part of the scheme, given the plethora of arts institutions in the area, such as dance company The Place. 

“We think its an opportunity to have science next to arts next to culture next to education next to conventional offices," she said.

Lendlease has invested in life sciences real estate before, when it formed a $500M joint venture with Ivanhoé Cambridge to build new lab space in the U.S. in February this year.