Ashby Capital and Native Land have secured planning to transform a King’s Cross office into a life sciences space.
The partners’ plans to reconfigure 105 Judd Street, WC1, as 70,000 sq ft of lab-enabled workspace in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter have been approved.
A joint venture between Ashby Capital and Montrose Land bought the building from the Royal National Institute of Blind People in January last year, bringing Native Land on board as development manager.
The lab-enabled specification will allow for easy conversion of floors from offices to labs.
Ashby chief executive Peter Ferrari said: “Judd Street will be an important addition to our portfolio of smart, best-in-class office assets in strategic London locations, allowing us to capitalise on growing demand from the life sciences sector. We look forward to working with Native Land and the development team to deliver a first-rate building which meets future needs for flexibility, collaboration and amenity.”
The Stiff + Trevillion Architects-designed scheme will allow 75% of the Edwardian building’s existing fabric to be retained and restored, while comfort and energy performance will be bought up to contemporary standards. A two-storey extension will increase the available net floor area from 55,000 sq ft to 70,000 sq ft, while the roof will have accessible outdoor terraces.
Native Land chief Alasdair Nicholls said: “Our aim is to deliver high-quality workspace for London’s Knowledge Quarter, with outstanding floor-to-ceiling heights that create large-volume creative workspaces that can be rapidly converted to science and technology research.”
The scheme will target a BREEAM Outstanding rating, while the refurbishment should outperform both the RIBA and LETI 2030 targets for embodied carbon.
Knight Frank and Cushman & Wakefield have been appointed as letting agents. Gerald Eve advised on planning.
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