Oxford retail warehouses snapped up by New York real estate company

By Nicky Godding

22 June 2021

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USA-based BentallGreenOak, a real estate global real estate investment management advisor, has bought two retail warehouse assets in central Oxford to turn them into life sciences spaces.

The assets have been bought in a new joint venture with property developer Mission Street, which undertakes mixed-use property development in the science and technology sector.

The companies will redevelop the spaces to meet the growing demand from life sciences companies in central Oxford. Once work is completed, the assets will provide a major research and development hub in central Oxford delivering purpose-built laboratory space into an undersupplied market.

These acquisitions are the first to be made by the new joint venture, which will seek to grow its platform via ground-up developments and the acquisition and re-purposing of existing assets in areas across the UK that are anchored by strong research and development credentials. The venture will also seek to partner with public and private bodies to build successful open innovation ecosystems.

Artem Korolev, Founder and Managing Director of Mission Street, commented: “We are delighted to be working with BentallGreenOak on these schemes in Oxford. They will deliver an exciting and dynamic urban research location within close proximity to Central Oxford, where we can deliver a purpose-built development to meet occupier needs. We look forward to curating a vibrant ecosystem in one of the world’s leading research and innovation locations and, beyond this, becoming the partner of choice for the UK’s research and innovation sector, supporting the entire lifecycle from discovery, to R&D, to manufacturing.”

Toby Phelps, Managing Partner at BentallGreenOak, added: “The growing and dynamic life sciences sector has been a key focus for us over the last 18 months. Leveraging our knowledge and relationships from the US market and our long-standing relationship with Artem and Mission Street has allowed us to identify assets that can provide high quality space into the supply-constrained market in Oxford. We are actively working on other near-term opportunities with the aim of building a substantial portfolio in the key UK science and innovation markets.”

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.