Moda Living has agreed a partnership with developer Osborne+Co to deliver a series of sites bringing together build-to-rent and life sciences campuses.
The pair aim to deliver at least 3,000 homes and 3m sq ft of life sciences space, with schemes in Belfast, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Milton Keynes expected to total well over £1bn in gross development value.
The first scheme will be the £450m Belfast Waterside at the former Sirocco Works site, which has outline consent for 1.7m sq ft of mixed-use space.
Moda has secured a deal to acquire a two-acre parcel of the 16-acre site. The BTR specialist will work with Osborne+Co to develop 500 flats in a £150m BTR scheme, to sit alongside 1.2m sq ft of office space catering to life sciences and tech occupiers.
The deal has been some years in the making, with negotiations taking place since the site was marketed for around £15m pre-pandemic. The pair will work to bring forward the different phases together and will collaborate to deliver public realm and amenities joining the different parts of the site.
Oscar Brooks, director at Moda Living, told EG: “Belfast has a real cluster of international companies focused on cyber security and fintech.”
The strategy also seeks to cater to large corporates relocating to the regions, tying in with the government’s levelling-up agenda.
Brooks added: “With a lot of the big corporates, tech and life sciences companies, their staff base is more transient and international. They are pulling in people with different skill sets from different places. Being able to provide an active community is a really interesting pull.”
Belfast-based Osborne+Co is a family business specialising in large-scale office campuses. Director Conor Osborne said the partnership aims to be “a key driver in unlocking major, strategic mixed-use sites across the UK”. He added: “Our approach to design and placemaking will create integrated communities of tomorrow that have not been delivered in the UK.”
Osborne+Co has a number of schemes in the pipeline in Glasgow and Milton Keynes. All parties declined to comment, though it is expected this could include Lancefield Quay in Glasgow, which will provide 400 BTR homes in the Anderston Waterfront area.
In Milton Keynes, the developer is working with Santander to create a £500m, 500,000 sq ft technology headquarters for 5,000 employees, expected to open in 2022. This area has also become a hub for life sciences activity, due to its proximity to large firms and universities in the Golden Triangle.
Brooks said: “The companies and the staff that Osborne+Co are targeting are essentially the same demographic that we are targeting.” By co-locating the two, he said the partners aim to create “a properly curated destination”.
The partnership comes amid a period of high growth for Moda Living, which has almost doubled its team since the start of the pandemic to 55 employees. Having established the asset management and operations capabilities, Moda is focused to expand the £3.5bn portfolio. The developer currently has a prime city centre strategy with Apache Capital, a strategy to develop single family housing with Ares and is also pursuing new schemes in London and a co-living product.
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