Once upon a time, there was a building called 200 Aldersgate. A hulking brute of a structure, it sat in the middle of one of London’s greyest, most traffic-choked city streets, empty and unsold, for nearly a decade.
Then, in 2010, Linda Morey Smith got her hands on it. Just over 18 months later, the building is 75% full – FTI Consulting is the latest in a long line of new tenants, as EG revealed last week, the firm has agreed to take £70,000 sq ft – Virgin Active has moved in with a basement gym and its value has soared.
And this is no one-hit wonder. Transforming difficult buildings into an occupiers’ paradise is designer Morey Smith’s speciality. She has secured an average value increase of 50% on nearly every old-stock refurbishment she has done since her eponymous building design consultancy went from having an occupier-only client list, including Moët, Red Bull, Sony and Virgin, to working with developers 10 years ago.
With the commercial property market getting tougher as quickly as occupier demands are changing, Morey Smith’s unbroken track record for adding value – particularly to problematic buildings – has seen developers including Helical Bar and Land Securities falling over themselves to work with her.
And it is the same story with the occupiers. In the past six months alone, Morey Smith has bagged major contracts with online clothing retailer ASOS and Coca-Cola as she prepares to refurbish the drinks giant’s new Wimpole Street headquarters.
Here the 50-year-old explains why developers, who now make up 50% of her client base, must wake up to the value of old-stock refurbishment if they want to stay on top of the market, discusses plans for her upcoming projects and reveals what occupiers want from a modern workspace.
Developer dealings
“If you are a developer and you want to make money on a building – if the occupiers come round and don’t like the inside, they won’t pay those high rents,” Morey Smith says matter of factly. “If a developer buys a building – in the right area – that is getting £35 per sq ft and they want £65 per sq ft – we can do that for them.”
This is a bold claim. But it is one backed up by Morey Smith’s track record and her company’s rise to success. The firm is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year after Morey Smith set up on her own at the age of 29 – just her and a PA in a tiny suite at the top of Greencoat House in Victoria.
Today, the group is 25-strong and has a turnover of more than £1m.
But just how does she achieve such dramatic value increases, even on tight budgets? Her trick is to encourage developers to embrace refurbishments as well as persuading them that sticking to industry expectations does not always pay off. “There is so much old stock in London at the moment,” she says.
“There is place for new-build but also a big case for not demolishing old buildings and reusing them where possible. It is better cost-wise and for the environment and there is so much that can be done to transform old stock into spaces people are desperate to come and work in.
“I don’t think for one minute that the British Council for Offices is not doing great things as an institution. But when it comes to refurbishments, you don’t necessarily want a BCO-standard building. People like these old buildings because they are quirky.”
She refers back to the aforementioned 200 Aldersgate project, which she worked on with Helical Bar. With a budget of just £10m she was able to breathe life back into the building after a 10-year lack of any serious interest from a single occupier. “We ripped off the facade, changed the entrances, brought in more colour. Then we used big lighting features and transformed the slightly awkward space where the building straddles the main road to create a social hub.”
Morey Smith adds that it takes a certain developer to understand her vision for attracting occupiers, or at least to trust her enough to let her get on with the job: “There are people who are particularly forward-thinking. Adam Hetherington at CBRE, for example. Then there are people like Gerald Kaye at Helical Bar who will put their faith in me and let me get on with it.
“I am seen by many of these firms now as a troubleshooter for problematic buildings. If it’s an easy job then companies may go to someone more pedestrian. There are any number of people out there who can do that sort of job. Difficult spaces are my niche.”
What occupiers want
Difficult space or not, knowing exactly what the occupier wants out of a modern workspace is crucial to the success of Morey Smith’s projects – whether she is working directly with the end-user or helping developers to attract tenants.
With requirements changing so much – especially with the influx of TMT firms – she says that it is important not to confuse creating a modern, desirable space with something trendy that will date quickly.
“As an example, we moved into this office 10 years ago,” she says.
“We have hardly changed anything but people come in all the time and say ‘I love your offices’. It’s a clean, simple space, where we are able to easily update the furniture, the artwork and maybe repaint the walls occasionally to create a new feel. I don’t like trendy, themed interiors.
“The main elements of what people want have remained largely the same. It’s still big windows, high ceilings and, more recently, social space. Obviously, you can’t achieve all of this everywhere, but we try.
“The social space is the easiest to achieve and it is vital now. We have put so many cafés into buildings over the last decade. You only need to walk past a coffee shop on the high street to see why – they are always full of people on laptops working. People don’t necessarily need meeting rooms all the time anymore. They want WiFi connectivity and really good coffee. We have been saying this for 15 years and I think finally developers are starting to listen.”
Fresh Blood
Morey Smith’s two biggest current projects are for the online clothing retailer ASOS and Coca-Cola’s new HQ.
On the latter, Morey Smith is planning a big cut-and-carve job to create a new HQ that reflects the brand: “That building is a BCO Cat A space at the moment, which is just not right for Coke,” says Morey Smith. “It’s too vanilla. So we are taking it right back to uncover all the cool features in the building. We are looking to open the space up and create more of a domestic feel.”
As for ASOS, Morey Smith is overseeing the expansion of the group’s HQ at Greater London House – due for completion in June – adding around 150,000sq ft of space. “It has been a fast project on a very low budget,” she says.
“They have an amazing website system, whereby they can track what people are looking at around the world, so the main feature in the reception will be projections of live links from their website – it’s very interactive.
“The average age at ASOS is 23 and the average age at Coca-Cola is 39. So I make sure I have some 23-year-olds working with me. I picked one for the ASOS job and she was there at the pitch and extremely involved. I take on two or three graduates every year. “
Instinct
Of course, these hand-picked teams all come Morey Smith-pre-approved and it is still her stamp that is left on each and every project. “It’s instinct,” she says. “I have worked with so many sectors over the years that I just tend to know what people want, what they are looking for and how to attract the occupiers.”
And anyone in any doubt should look at 200 Aldersgate and its long-awaited happily ever after
