Emery: ‘We are always making ourselves slightly uncomfortable’

In under a year Lendlease has scored a hat trick in London, scooping up almost 450 acres of development land at Euston, Silvertown and Thamesmead, with an end value of more than £17bn and the promise of more than 18,000 homes. Add to that a double deal in Birmingham, and projects in Milan and you’ve got a business with a whole lot of development on its hands. “The business wanted to grow in Europe and we’ve been incredibly successful,” says Jonathan Emery, Lendlease’s Property Europe managing director, who relocated from Sydney in 2016 to spearhead European expansion. “But these things do not happen overnight.” A global brand wielding global institutional capital is an attractive prospect for acquisitions and partnerships. But Emery says there’s also an element of “right time right place” and fortune in securing the right clients. So what is Lendlease looking for? “Large, complex projects where we think we can add some value, and that maybe need global thinking to unlock and maximise opportunities,” he says. “It’s part of the culture – never resting, always making ourselves slightly uncomfortable. It’s always moving, clients are evolving, cities are evolving.” The latest addition to its portfolio is the 250 acres of land at Thamesmead Waterfront that Lendlease will develop in a 50:50 joint venture with Peabody. The regeneration, for which Lendlease was selected last week, will centre around the new DLR station. Transport for London is currently reviewing different routes for the extension to Thamesmead, which was promised by the mayor in 2016, and has been called for for 30 years. “We’re going to have to work with Peabody and the GLA about how we maximise that opportunity. At the moment the connectivity doesn’t support the level of investment that we want to put in.” The scheme is far larger than anything Lendlease has tackled in the UK and it is outside zone 1, so brings a different value proposition and challenges. It needs “communication and connectivity”, Emery says. “How do we make the demand for affordable homes sustainable and attractive in terms of jobs, where people want to live and their connections to employment.” On top of ensuring transport links open up this region, Lendlease will focus on rebranding the area and providing local jobs as well as homes. Lendlease’s proposition Lendlease has 13,000 employees globally, including master planners, architects, in-house strategic infrastructure advisers, designers, specialists in quality control and new residential technologies, and staff that run a housing helpdesk in Birmingham. It has integrated investment, development and construction arms, providing a greater degree of internal intel early on and assurance for at-scale project delivery. “When we talk about how we’re going to deal with lifetime homes or manufacturing, with the idea of localised factories, we can talk about that as a team who actually do build the buildings; it’s not something we’re going to sub-contract,” says Emery. He is wary of “group think” and is keen to maintain supply chain and external advisory communications. This includes workshops on how communities influence loneliness, both positively and negatively. The company recently sent a team to San Francisco and Toronto, with Finland next on the list, to learn how these cities create and solve the issue of homelessness. “That’s the bread and butter of regeneration now – being willing to enter into those difficult conversations and adapt,” he adds. He points to the redevelopment of the Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle, SE1, as a case in point. Lendlease was selected as development partner in 2007, and over the last decade residents rallied against the development, attracting high-profile political and media support. “Our plans in Elephant did change and for the better. I can see the result and you have to put that down to the engagement and those people who helped shape the outcome of the scheme.” Political complications Emery isn’t too concerned about shifting politics in the capital, although Lendlease has been burned in the past – when Haringey Council leadership switched from blue to red, councillors threw out the £4bn partnership, opting to do it themselves. But, as London readies itself for Sadiq Khan’s fight for 2020 re-election, armed with decentralised funds and planning policy, Emery isn’t focused on the short-term risks or political feuds. “Things are always evolving; we work with what’s in front of us,” he says. “The general trajectory of cities and urbanisation, the environmental challenges, the economic, the housing challenges, affordability, these are all future-looking challenges for cities.” Thamesmead is a 30-year project, it will outlive various political cycles, and Emery is focused on long-term strategy. But on Brexit he is less muted: “Uncertainty isn’t helpful for anybody – we look forward to a time when we can plan forward, although recognise that in the modern world uncertainty seems to be the certainty.” The Thamesmead Waterfront regeneration Peabody has chosen Lendlease to masterplan and develop the 11,500-home regeneration at Thamesmead Waterfront in south-east London. The £8bn project will see a new district built on 250 acres around a new DLR station. John Lewis, executive director for Thamesmead, said: “This is the biggest single project for Peabody and we need a partner who has more experience than us in respect of large-scale commercial development and housing.” The development is larger than Peabody’s entire existing portfolio. Lewis says the housing association was looking for a global developer and drew on its previous experience and community engagement from schemes like Elephant Park, and beyond London. “There’s an enormous amount of open space, very limited housing and a town centre that’s not giving the residents what it should. This is really about taking it forward – it’s not regeneration, a lot of this is generation,” says Lewis. Kim Grieveson, lead commercial director for Thamesmead Waterfront at Avison Young, adds: “They had some great ideas about long-term sustainable places in terms of homes across people’s entire lives and really interesting ideas about modern methods of construction and how that might interplay with the employment component.” To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette