Stanhope has recruited a Blackstone senior managing director as successor to chief executive David Camp, who plans to step down in the next two-five years.
Stuart Grant, currently head of asset management for Blackstone’s Asia-Pacific business, will join Stanhope as managing director on 3 September. The new role has been created as part of the company’s succession planning.
Grant’s experience at Blackstone, which is the largest real estate fund manager in Asia, is expected to complement Stanhope’s plans to grow significant platforms in the build-to-rent and life sciences development sectors.
Camp says: “In some of the areas that we have been starting to move into, like the residential rental business, we are starting to find a delivery machine to provide that product. But I think for it to be successful we need to scale it up, and I think some of Stuart’s skills from his asset management background will help us create a platform.”
Grant joined Blackstone’s London office in 2000 and in 2010 he moved to Hong Kong to help build the firm’s Asia-Pacific business.
He says: “One of Blackstone’s strengths is building strong operating platforms. We have done that in the office sector in India, the retail sector in China and the residential sector in Japan, so I think building strong operating platforms that help you execute strategy is critical.”
Stanhope was founded in 1983 by Sir Stuart Lipton, who left the business and sold his stake in the company to Camp, then managing director, in 2005.
Stanhope’s management now owns 45% of the business, Japanese real estate investor Mitsui Fudosan owns 30% and Canadian institutional investment fund manager, Albert Investment Management Corporation, holds a 25% stake. Grant will become a shareholder when he joins the company.
The developer, asset manager and investor’s portfolio is mostly London-based, with key projects including the Broadgate Estate, W2, which it developed with British Land before selling its interest in the scheme; the 2m sq ft Chiswick Park scheme in Chiswick, W4, which it completed in 2015 with Blackstone and Schroders; and the Television Centre and White City Place, W12, ongoing projects being developed in a joint venture with Mitsui Fudosan and AimCo.
Life sciences
Stanhope has already started building a niche in specialist development for life sciences occupiers. Last year, Stanhope and Mitsui were chosen as development partners for a 700,000 sq ft campus next to the Francis Crick Institute and British Library, NW1. It will include a bespoke headquarters for the Alan Turing Institute, the national centre for data research and new commercial space that is expected to attract global pharmaceutical companies and life sciences start-ups.
Camp says: “Because of the Francis Crick Institute [which other life sciences want to be close to], we have got a lot of interesting occupiers knocking on our door and we are learning from them about the product they want, which is a very helpful starting point.
Interest so far has included US and European pharmaceutical companies and UK-based start-ups, which are growing rapidly. Camp says the company hopes to secure an anchor tenant and then create a community around them.
“The sector loves the whole co-mingling thing, even the big pharma companies,” he says. “They want to be part of a community and they want to be co-locating and co-working with other businesses.”
Stanhope and Mitsui are aiming to finalise their agreement with the British Library in the summer and submit a planning application in spring 2019.
At White City Place, the circa 2m sq ft office quarter that is home to 3,000 BBC staff, Stanhope, with Mitsui and AIMCo, is in discussions to let space to four life sciences occupiers that have started incubating at the adjacent Imperial College campus.
“We are definitely thinking we are going to create some critical mass of life sciences there,” Camp says. It is considering applying to change the planning consent for the main building on the campus to make it more appropriate for life science businesses.
Mitsui, a leading developer of life sciences workspace in Japan, has sent its team to London to share its expertise, and the Stanhope team has visited Japan to learn more. Stanhope is now looking for new life sciences development sites around the Cambridge-London-Oxford Golden Triangle.
Build-to-rent
Stanhope’s plans to make a big play in the build-to-rent sector will be tested by its joint venture with Network Homes and Laing O’Rourke to create a £200m development of 550 precision-engineered homes in Southall, Ealing, next to the new Crossrail station.
“That’s our first prototype to try and test the theory and make sure it works in practice. In the meantime, we are busy looking for other sites in and around London to get some critical mass going,” Camp says.
He says land prices are “still pretty unrealistically high” but he expects to see more opportunities in the next 12 months.
While the developer will continue to be London-centric, because it feels that is where its expertise lies, the “two-tier” planning system in London that requires approval from the local planning authority and the Greater London Authority is making Stanhope look at areas surrounding the capital.
“It’s frustrating at the moment,” says Camp. “On the one hand we need to comply with the needs of the local plans and on the other hand what is emerging from the draft London Plan which is often in conflict. The plan is seeking 65,000 new homes a year but then puts in place many roadblocks and complications to slow down delivery.
“Partly because of that, we’re not looking miles away but at some locations that are outside of the geographic London area but still commute into London – Watford, Slough, Maidenhead, those sort of locations, so you don’t have to go through the two-tier planning process which you have to go through in Greater London, which isn’t how it should be obviously.”
Hong Kong to London
For Grant, it could be a challenge to readjust to some of the slow-moving planning mechanisms in the UK.
He says one of the most impressive things about China is its emphasis on infrastructure. “I think the ability to execute on infrastructure projects is impressive, so I’m really encouraged coming back to see that Crossrail is happening.”
What does he expect to find most challenging about his new role? “One challenge is to make sure I adapt to the culture and get along with my colleagues,” he says. “And then obviously getting up to speed on the deals that Stanhope has done, which should be relatively straightforward. But there’s always challenges in a new role. We’ll see what comes in September.”
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