Knight Frank Plays U.S. Card As It Builds UK Life Sciences Platform
Knight Frank is set to leverage the client connections of U.S. occupier services partner Cresa to create a nationwide UK life sciences advisory platform.
Emma Goodford, Knight Frank's newly appointed head of life science and innovation, said the U.S. link would build on strength in London and the UK regions.
Cresa have an established life sciences presence in the core markets of Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle. Cresa work with life science clients including Amgen, Abcam, Gilead, Trefoil, Thermo Fisher Scientific, LabCorp, and AdipoGen.
The UK team is already appointed to advise on key life sciences developments. Projects include Brookfield Properties’ £714M acquisition of Arlington, a science, innovation and technology platform comprising 36 assets across science campuses in the Golden Triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge.
Goodford, whose father was a bioscience professor and has strong links to the life sciences sector's Golden Triangle, said the U.S. link would help build on indigenous growth in the capital, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and elsewhere.
“The U.S. market is about 20 years ahead of us, so there is a great opportunity to evolve. I particularly want to work with occupiers who, having started here, might be tempted to go to the U.S. to grow," Goodford said.
“One of the big opportunities we have is to grow the occupier business through our link with Cresa," Goodford told Bisnow. "It is a big name in the U.S. life science markets and we have a real opportunity to draw on their longstanding relationships with occupiers, many of whom already do business in the UK or Europe. That creates a great opportunity."
Goodford added that although the spotlight has been on the Golden Triangle and the South East, which account for 50% of the sector employment in the wider UK market, Knight Frank’s decision to create a national platform made sense.
“We’ve already been doing a lot on this sector, but we’re going to bring it together to demonstrate to clients we have a cohesive capability," she said.
