EG meets… Jace Tyrrell

One of the best-known names on the London real estate circuit, former chief executive of New West End Company Jace Tyrrell travelled Down Under in 2022 to take up the role of inaugural chief executive of the New Sydney Waterfront Company. From one business improvement district to another, he was charged with launching Australia’s “first true BID”. In October last year he returned to the UK, and London specifically, to take up another inaugural role, this time as chief executive of Opportunity London. Driving investment into the city, the public-private partnership runs in partnership with the City of London, London Councils and mayor of London. The plan? To attract £100bn of investment into across real estate, regeneration, infrastructure and energy in the UK capital. So, how is he going to do it? And how is he finding the transition from his previously West End-centric role to one that covers all 32 London boroughs? After just over a year out in Sydney, you are back. Welcome. It was a lovely stint down under and a great way to get around Singapore and Malaysia to see what is going on over there as well. But there is no other city in the world quite like London. I heard once that you go to Paris to be a Parisian, you go to New York to be a New Yorker, but you go to London to be yourself. That’s quite profound and there’s certainly a draw in that. Sometimes you have to leave a city to really appreciate it. So now I’m back. Team London. And, speaking of the UK capital, the city is very much baked into the title of the new role at Opportunity London. Yes, it does what it says on the tin. London And Partners have been working on this for 18 months. The industry basically said we need London to come together as one venture, if you like, for investment. All the boroughs and GLA need to align and we need to put a pipeline of opportunities together. The need was very clear. I think it was previously a bit uncoordinated after Brexit and Covid. We have got to focus on growing in the future, not just off the back of what has happened and the city’s past reputation. It has been so interesting to start working with all the London boroughs and saying: “What have you got? What do you want to attract investment for?” They often don’t have the time to really think strategically about their assets so we can really add some value there. How have you found the shift in focus from one very specific area back when you were at New West End Company to covering the whole city? Getting out of W1 or central London is absolutely part of it. Really looking at zones 3-6, seeing what’s happening, understanding what is going on in housing, for example, these are new areas for me, away from retail and leisure. That has meant that the first few weeks in the role have been a baptism of fire. I have really been getting around London, clocking up those tube miles. Can you tell me a bit more about Opportunity London in terms of how it works on the investment side in real terms? We are very focused on institutional capital. We don’t do FDI. We don’t do promotion for tourism. We focus on long-term investors, primarily pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, investing in London in a range of asset classes. So, it’s real estate, it’s energy in its infrastructure. Opportunity London is doing three things. First, we are working on a pipeline of investable opportunities, and we will be launching that at MIPIM this year. That first version is worth over £100bn of opportunity over the next decade. So, it’s really quite chunky and attractive to the global marketplace. The second thing we are doing is talking to the top 30 investors in a very real, dedicated way. Often the pension funds and sovereign wealth know bits of London where they have already invested, some of them for quite a long time over decades. Some are looking to expand, looking at different assets and areas and we can help with that in terms of where they can increase their investment. The third thing we will do is take London around the world with one voice. It is Team London. You talked earlier about having to focus on London’s growth going forward rather than relying on the city’s past reputation. What do you think London’s reputation is at the moment? We have had lots of flows of capital for a long time. I think it’s still seen as a very liquid city, which is good. And you think around other global cities comparatively. It’s still up there in the in the league table. There’s no doubt the political uncertainty, issues around planning are challenges. But there are challenges in every city. When we talk to those investors who genuinely think long term and who want to de-risk their capital, London is still seen as very popular in that regard. The fundamentals are there. Like every global city, there’s a bit of a reckoning, on commercial real estate. But there are still massive requirements for housing in London and we need infrastructure and low-carbon energy. That needs investment and the government can’t keep bankrolling this. We’re going to have to bring the third-party partners through the institutions to co-invest alongside the public sector. Are there any sectors that are particularly piquing investors’ interests? Life sciences and logistics get mentioned a lot. The challenge is that then every bit of London wants a bit of life science or a bit of leisure or a bit of culture. Not all 32 boroughs can do life sciences or film and television. What we need to do is work with everybody in the GLA to cluster London and then aggregate and scale. The big moment will come in September this year, when we will hold our global investment summit at the London Real Estate Forum. By then we are going to see probably over 100 schemes in that pipeline. Finally, you have come back to London after some time away, you see it as a city where one can be themself. So, what does the city mean to you? Coming from a regional town in Queensland, Australia, when I came here 20 years ago, I think there is a truism that you can be yourself and authentic in this city. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world because of the mix of people, the languages spoken and the age demographic. There’s something so compelling about that diversity. Then there is the fact that this is a trillion-dollar economy, and you can really feel that energy. This is a city where there’s always a deal to be done. To send feedback, e-mail emily.wright@eg.co.uk or tweet @EmilyW_9 or @EGPropertyNews