2.5 Million SQ FT Station Hill Giving Green Light to Kickstart £750 Million Reading Regeneration

Announcement | January 14, 2021

LONDON, England — January 14, 2021 — This latest approval, brought forward by the joint venture between Lincoln Property Company and MGT Investment Management (Lincoln MGT), will create a new gateway for Reading, comprising up to 625,000 sq ft best-in-class office space, 750 private and affordable homes, and over 60,000 sq ft of new lifestyle-led retail and leisure space, including potential for a 200-bed hotel and later living accommodation, and two acres of the public realm. This will deliver a new and improved landscaped entrance to Reading which will play host to a series of curated, community-focused events.

A prominent element of the proposal, One Station Hill, will be the first office building within the scheme, offering 275,000 sq ft of best-in-class workspace. There has been considerable occupational interest in this state-of-the-art building which offers amenities that, until now, have rarely been seen outside of the London market. This includes several onsite fitness facilities and concierge services, as well as its own tech-based ecosystem that will provide occupiers with complete control of their workspace.

Aimed at occupiers vying to win the ‘war for talent’, One Station Hill will go beyond the traditional standalone regional office space that dominates the market outside of London, including rooftop amenities with terrace, bar and lounge, direct access to 95,000 sq ft of independent retail, leisure and F&B, promoting the vibrancy of a new community and curated public realm that thousands will call home.  The latter phases provide flexibility for a range of commercial and residential uses, providing a deliverable pathway for including later living and hotel accommodation, to meet the changing social and economic trends as the development programme progresses.

Once complete, this prominent site in the heart of Reading will combine with earlier residential phases to deliver up to 1,350 new homes, office accommodation for approximately 9,000 new jobs, lifestyle-led space for retail, cafes and restaurants, a new pedestrian link and activated public realm between the station and the town centre, becoming a new district and destination for Reading.

Lincoln MGT have commenced the preparatory works, with a view to having completed One Station Hill, a new public square, and link bridge through to the new 550+ BTR community and the town centre beyond by 2024.

The design of the project is being overseen by an international collective that features CallisonRTKL acting as the project masterplanner and architect for the residential and hotel buildings; Gensler as the architect for the commercial office buildings and LDA Design as landscape architects for the public realm.

Alex Aitchison, Director of Development at Lincoln Property Company UK said:

“From the start on site in the Spring, to the completion of One Station Hill in 2024 – the real work starts now. However, we know that our focus on and expertise in placemaking will set Station Hill apart, and we are thoroughly looking forward to seeing our transformative vision for Reading become a reality.

“Station Hill will deliver an exceptional mixed-use environment offering a true live-work location adjacent to Reading Train Station and the start of The Elizabeth Line. The scheme has been designed to give occupiers and their employees an activated, energised ecosystem with amenities on hand and multi-modal travel connections to draw on a wide pool of talent. The quality of the office space will drive occupier’s productivity and in a post-COVID world, will help to bring employees back to the office to a safe and inspirational space.

“We believe in Reading’s potential, and this decision provides the positive momentum that the town needs at this crucial juncture. Not only will Station Hill provide an opportunity to improve the way in which people live, work, invest in and visit this town, it will create a platform for Reading to fulfill its potential as the true capital of the South East. The time for Station Hill is now.”

UK Property Forum has the full story here.

About the joint venture:

Lincoln Property Company

Lincoln Property Company (LPC) is one of the largest and most diversified real estate companies in Europe and the United States. LPC is the only U.S. real estate company to rank concurrently in the Top 10 lists of Management/Ownership of Office, Industrial and Multi-Family (BTR).

Originally entering Europe in 1989 and subsequently partnering exclusively with AIG in 1997, LPC provided the entrepreneurial, development and operational expertise responsible for building a dominant platform resulting in delivering over 27 million square feet across 50 projects in 9 major European markets.

LPC re-launched its European operations in 2016. The new entity focuses both on investment and development opportunities across all sectors.

THE COMPANY

  • Founded in 1965 in Dallas, Texas
  • 9000 Employees
  • 200 Offices in the United States
  • 2 Offices in Europe (London and Prague)

DEVELOPMENT

  • £20 BLN of assets developed since 1965
  • 150 MLN SQFT of commercial projects developed
  • 220 000 Multi-Family (BTR) units developed

ASSET MANAGEMENT

  • € 94 BLN AUM (Assets Under Management)
  • 409 MLN SQFT commercial projects leased/managed.
  • 200 000 Multi-Family (BTR) units under management (Second largest operator in the U.S.)

MGT Investment Management

MGT is an independent pan-European real estate investment and asset management business focused on thematic real estate strategies. Our investment approach is analytical, data driven, and guided by understanding real estate market segmentation and macro demographic trends. This robust, rigorously researched investment methodology incorporates bespoke modelling of population, productivity, economic, employment, education, housing and transport data.

MGT’s current focus covers both multi-family and single-family build-to-rent residential as well counter-cyclical residential investment in London. MGT is based in London and currently has an investment programme of over £1bn in progress in the UK including over 2,000 residential units and over 600,000 sq ft of commercial space. MGT’s principals, having previously worked together at Europa Capital, have been actively involved in investing more than €11 billion in European real estate.

CallisonRTKL (CRTKL) (Station Hill’s masterplanner and residential architect)

CallisonRTKL, a global architecture, planning and design practice, began over seven decades ago and has evolved into a cultural agency to advance positive outcomes in our local and global communities. Through a human-centric design approach our team addresses the imperatives of resiliency, wellbeing and technology and their influence in the built environment.

Gensler (Office building design architect for ONE Station Hill)

Gensler is a global architecture, design and planning firm with 50 locations and more than 6,000 professionals networked across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas. Founded in 1965, the firm serves more than 3,500 active clients in virtually every industry. Gensler designers strive to make the places people live, work and play more inspiring, more resilient and more impactful.

LDA Design (Landscape architect leading the design of Station Hill’s public realm, in collaboration with CallisonRTKL (CRTKL))

LDA Design’s purpose is to make great places and shape the world around us for the better. We provide landscape-led masterplanning, design and planning services. We create sociable spaces for encounter and exchange, such as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, one of Europe’s most successful new parklands. We design and deliver city centre public realm projects including London’s Battersea Power Station, Strand-Aldwych, and streets in the West End which are getting new green space and prioritising pedestrians and cyclists.