Adapting and innovating

The façades of Regent Street and St James’s reflect the innovation of their day, whilst telling a story of heritage and tradition. However, the way these beautiful buildings are used has been undergoing a quiet revolution.

As our customers’ needs are changing, so too are we, moving away from being a traditional ‘landlord’ to become a service provider, delivering a wider range of spaces and services. A start-up today could be a global business in a few years’ time, and our ambition is to cater for both needs, allowing each to make our Central London portfolio a home for life and The Crown Estate their property provider of choice.

That’s why we have launched our next generation of flexible workspaces, which follow in the footsteps of One Heddon Street and build on the lessons learned from it. Swallow Place offers fully furnished adaptable workspaces of varying sizes, available on flexible, short‑term leases. Pricing includes an in-house reception and support team, and access to amenities such as flexible events spaces, meeting rooms, break-out areas, a roof terrace and wellbeing and exercise classes.

Customer choice continues with a pilot concept in St James’s; a new amenity space for our St James’s office customers, a hybrid of a members club, event and co-working areas. We hope to launch our exciting new concept during the year ahead. The pilot will allow us to learn more about how we can deliver customer value and satisfaction.

As we strive to offer a more diverse menu of spaces, we have also been trialling revolving restaurant residencies at 10 Heddon Street. Our short-term incubator project gives exciting industry talent the opportunity to test new restaurant concepts before committing to a long-term lease.

These concepts illustrate the way we have been looking to meet the changing needs of existing and new customers, creating the flexible spaces, amenities and leases they need as they develop. As we, together with our customers, navigate the changing market and economic uncertainty accelerated by the impact of COVID-19, we will continue to adapt and innovate to ensure central London, and our destinations within it, remain leading places to work, shop and eat.