British Land to turn former Meta office into labs

British Land has lodged proposals to transform 1 Triton Square, NW1, at the Regent’s Place campus into  flexible fitted-out laboratory spaces to attract smaller start-up life sciences companies. The building’s existing co-working space operated under British Land’s Storey brand. Some of the open-plan, grade-A office space will be retained to complement the laboratory spaces. The plan to convert 1 Triton Square comes after Meta, the owner of Facebook, paid £149m to hand back the lease on the 310,000 sq ft building last year.  The building was constructed in 1998 as a dedicated workspace for the First National Bank of Chicago. In 2018-21, it underwent a refurbishment and three additional levels of office space were added, along with a social housing block immediately to the north. The plans include fitted-out labs on the second and third floor, with lab-enabled spaces on the fourth and fifth floors. The upper three floors will feature shell and core facilities that can be fine-tuned to meet the requirements of a potential tenant. The ground floor will have an open-plan reception, with cycle parking facilities, a café, auditorium and break-out spaces on the first floor. Elsewhere, the developer is set to add air handling plant rooms, cryogenic and gas storage, replace the outer glazing system, and provide two dedicated fume extract systems to the laboratories. DP9 is advising British Land on planning. Regent’s Place occupies a 13-acre site in Camden on the edge of the Knowledge Quarter. Earlier this year, British Land lodged proposals to turn another building within the scheme, known as Euston Tower, into life sciences hub.