Convene readies London launch

Scotch tastings, afternoon tea, yoga and World Cup screenings. These are just some of the amenities available to Convene customers in New York which could cross the Atlantic next year for the company’s London launch. With more than $150m (£114.1m) in financing under its belt from investors including Brookfield Property Partners, the US flexible meeting and working space start-up is now investing serious money in London, which will be its first international outpost. This week it announced its first hires in the capital: Blackstone’s Elliott Sparsis, who joins as vice president of real estate, and James Frankis from Gensler, who is taking on the role of director of strategic solutions for London. Sparsis joins Convene after six years at the US private equity firm, where he was senior manager overseeing the firm’s portfolio of central London offices. He was involved in several of Blackstone’s highest-profile investments in the office sector, including Chiswick Park, the Adelphi Building, WC2, 20 Old Bailey, EC4, and 125 Old Broad Street, EC2. Previously, Frankis spent just over four years at the US design, planning and consulting firm’s London office. After joining as an associate, he became European practice area lead for consulting in May this year. Founded in 2009, Convene manages common space and meeting rooms in office buildings. It has also branched out into club space and hospitality services such as fitness classes and catering. Its in-house technology platform, Elevate, offers landlords data on how tenants use space. London calling Convene currently operates in six cities in the US but is looking to expand to London in 2019. The company runs locations in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago. In February, it hired CBRE to finds its first London locations. It plans to open around 500,000 sq ft of office space in London, taking its global total to 1.7m sq ft by the end of 2019. Sparsis said: “We have identified two key areas to open in. The City is our target market for our first site. Canary Wharf is another priority.” Convene is also looking at the West End, City fringe, South Bank and Midtown submarkets. Convene’s business model involves partnering with landlords. The partnership can include a lease, but typically involves unique terms. In London, it has the opportunity to team up with some of its investors, such as Brookfield which already operates real estate in the city. Sparsis said: “We want partnerships with the landlords. Owning outright is not in our strategy. We would also work with enterprise tenants [occupiers] as well – that is something that we see working well. We can work in a three-way deal with both landlords and tenants.” The company is targeting a range of landlord partners, not just its investors. “We are not exclusively tied to operating with our investor Brookfield in London. The metrics of the building have to stack up,” added Sparsis. Frankis said: “We really are trying to partner with landlords. This has been very successful in the US. “WeWork is more of a tenant in a building. Our deal structure is different and how we approach a building is different. It is about starting to identify the right building, landlords that have a progressive approach around what we think the future of workplace is.” The pair are bullish about the opportunities that London will offer, despite co-working being a crowded market. “The workplace market in London is big, underestimated,” said Frankis. “That is going to need to be augmented by things such as tech, club space, places to work and focus and places to unwind and socialise.” It remains to be seen whether working Londoners put down their free pints of beer and table tennis bats and embrace a new model, but Sparsis is sanguine about his competitors: “Rivals cannot compete with the experience we have built over the years in the US. We will have competitors, but we are confident in the product.” To send feedback, e-mail anna.ward@egi.co.uk or tweet @annaroxelana or @estatesgazette