MORNING NEWS: Bruntwood SciTech heads to London

Good morning. Here’s your daily round-up of the latest news and views from EG and a collection of real estate-relevant headlines from the national papers. Bruntwood SciTech and Imperial College London have joined forces to create a £200m life sciences and deep tech innovation workspace in west London. The joint venture will deliver a new commercial innovation facility of at least 200,000 sq ft as part of its ambitious £2bn WestTech Corridor expansion plans at White City. Kath Mackay, chief scientific officer at Bruntwood SciTech, said: “Having worked to become embedded in the knowledge economies of the UK’s regional cities and creating city-wide innovation ecosystems, it is now the time for us to expand into London. This new, joined-up approach between the capital and the UK’s fastest growing regional cities will enable businesses to harness the power of the collective and encourage companies of all sizes to consider the UK as their first choice for future investment.” There’s a haul of household names lining up new London offices. The company behind the iconic Texas-based South by Southwest festival has signed a lease for a new office in Shoreditch ahead of its festival in the area next year; PayPal is nearing a deal for space in Stanhope’s 76 Southbank, SE1, a brutalist block originally built for tech company IBM in the early 1980s; and Pinterest is searching for a new, larger, London headquarters, which the company hopes to move into in early 2026. But, as usual, not every office will cut it. Patrizia is attempting to offload a block in Croydon for less than half of what it paid for the building just six years ago, pitching it as a residential redevelopment opportunity.  Over the rest of this week you can read the coverage of our recent ESG Summit. The extent to which investors have moved beyond viewing ESG as a nice-to-have was laid bare in a session on impact investing, in which decarbonisation and social value creation were shown to be central to delivering returns. As Impactful Places managing director Vivienne King put it: “This isn’t philanthropy, it isn’t creating value with no return, it’s absolutely creating it with a return, so let me unpack that: there needs to be an intention, and the intention needs to be central to investment strategy, and that sits alongside the intention to create a financial return.” There’s also news on British Land’s retail park focus; commercial landlords’ efforts to cut their energy use; and another big office-to-hotel conversion on the cards. All of the news from EG, plus a selection of headlines from the nationals: Bruntwood SciTech teams up with Imperial on £200m London lab facilityPayPal set for transfer to new South Bank officeSXSW signs for east London space ahead of debut European eventPinterest pins agents for London HQ searchCroydon office halves in value as Patrizia puts it up for saleBritish Land says retail park focus is ‘paying off’Law firm picks Broadgate for new officePutting ESG at the summit of real estate strategyLondon commercial landlords slash energy useRound Hill picks Allsop to run flagship Manchester schemeDevelopment bank unlocks north Wales housingRICS calls for mandatory carbon assessments as progress falls shortHow the high street can fulfil the UK’s top three needsHow investors are adapting strategies to incorporate sustainabilityCriterion Capital buys former Square Mile bank for hotel conversionWingstop to arrive in Cheltenham’s Brewery QuarterSovereign names new investment and development chiefCost to upgrade obsolete buildings to top $1tn, says JLLCala Homes buys £23m Hertfordshire green belt site after planning wrangleNeville snaps up second hotel from DalataHartley joins Mountview as non-execEuropean retail investment set to end year 15% upPrologis hits full occupancy at Northampton industrial parkOld Kent Road student scheme hits the marketUK’s life sciences market among top three in Savills’ Global IndexFund administrator moves into Solent Business ParkUK’s Mulberry to streamline operations after first-half loss widensBank of England governor backs big retail on Budget jobs warningInflated farmland prices blocking government from building enough homes (£)Billionaire Poonawalla family buy £42mn Mayfair property despite non-dom fears (£)Milan beats London and New York as home to most expensive shopping street (£)Rents to rise by almost a fifth over next five years, warns Savills (£)Family behind Ann Summers steps in after further losses (£)