Native Land has exchanged contracts with top law firm Lewis Silkin to take 28,000 sq ft of office space on a 15-year lease at Arbor, the first building to complete at its landmark Bankside Yards development in SE1.
The legal firm is relocating from the City to SE1 to further enhance its existing focus on creativity, technology and innovation. It was attracted by Arbor’s sustainability credentials, striking architecture and quality of space offered. The richly diverse cultural and heritage offer of Bankside Yards and the surrounding area, as well as its exceptional transport links, were also key draws.
The all-electric building will be powered by renewable energy and is part of Bankside Yards, the UK’s first major mixed-use estate to be net zero carbon in operation.
Bankside Yards will reconnect London’s South Bank with the Bankside area for the first time in more than 150 years thorough a series of new public walkways across the site. The 5.5-acre mixed-use scheme comprises 8 new buildings and 14 Victorian railway arches which are being restored by Native Land and made publicly accessible once more. Once complete, Bankside Yards will incorporate workspaces, residential, retail, an LGBTQ+ cultural space and a 5* hotel as well as new, biodiverse public realm.
Arbor, which is due for completion this summer, has been designed to reflect the industrial heritage of the Bankside area. This diverse urbanism has played a key role in attracting innovative, creative companies to SE1.Lewis Silkin will occupy floors 6 and 7 of Arbor. The new 19-storey workspace will help to meet high levels of demand from media, technology, and forward-thinking professional services firms to be based in Bankside and SE1 – an area rapidly becoming a key innovation and life health cluster for London.
Jay Squier, Director – Commercial & Mixed Use, at Native Land said:
“We are very proud to welcome Lewis Silkin as our first tenant at Arbor, Bankside Yards. As an innovative and forward-thinking company with a focus on people, creativity, and technology, they are an ideal fit for Arbor – a smart, sustainable workplace, offering striking architecture and exceptional light filled space”
Richard Miskella, Joint Managing Partner at Lewis Silkin, said:
“When looking for our new London home, it was key that we found somewhere that reflected our culture, our community and who we are as a firm. We work with leading businesses to protect and enhance what really matters to them — their ideas, their people and their future – and Arbor ticks all the boxes for what we need. It will provide us with the space and sustainable environment to reimagine the ways our teams work together in a post-pandemic world, whilst immersing us in a rich and diverse cultural setting enabling us to continue playing an active part in our local community.”
Arbor is Native Land’s second major office development after OneThreeSix in W1, London. OneThreeSix was fully let prior to completion to fintech company Smart Pension in July 2021 in one of the largest West End lettings of last year. Knight Frank and Ingleby Trice acted on behalf of Native Land and JLL acted for Lewis Silkin. Clyde & Co also acted on behalf of Native Land.
The architect for the project is PLP Architecture and the contractor is Multiplex.
About Arbor
• Arbor is part of Bankside Yards, a £2.5bn mixed-use scheme on London’s Bankside.
• Bankside Yards is a joint venture between Native Land, Amcorp Properties Berhad, Hotel Properties Limited and Temasek – with Native Land also acting as development
manager.
• Arbor was designed with the needs and demands of future workforces in mind: sustainability, technology and wellbeing were key to its conception.
• The ‘smart’ building has the potential for its own digital twin – a 3-D replica of the building which provides real time analysis to monitor and improve its efficiency.
• Native Land has partnered with Smart Spaces, the leading technology providers in building management, to develop Arbor’s technology infrastructure. Lewis Silkin will work
with Smart Spaces to revolutionise how they operate their office and connect into this infrastructure.
• Arbor will be heated by high-tech air source heat pumps. This forms part of the wider Bankside Yards sustainability strategy announced last year which involves using a 5th
Generation energy sharing network on a scale not yet seen in the UK. These sustainability features mean that Arbor will use 30% less energy than other new workspaces.
• Double and even triple height ceilings in places create a sense of volume. A vast smart façade, made from low-iron glass which makes it optically clear, provides high
levels of natural light – improving productivity. The building’s optimised façade system will automatically reduce solar heat gain, which decreases the need for cooling
and reduces energy consumption.
• Collaboration is encouraged via vast new civic-scale spaces on two unique floors – including a 6m high floor that could be used as an auditorium. These were inspired by
the Turbine Hall at the nearby Tate Modern. The building has nine terraces to support wellbeing.
• Level 19 has a large outdoor terrace which can open up to join with the indoors, creating a hyper-versatile space that could be used for yoga, outdoor cinema screenings,
meetings and training sessions. Arbor has a room for stretching, meditation groups and other wellness activities as well as 330 cycle spaces to encourage healthy travel.
Bankside Yards is very well-connected with 4 mainline rail stations, 6 Underground stations, 5 bus routes and 2 river boat piers within 10-minute walk.
