Largest Life Sciences Lease Since 2022 Gives London A Lift
Private equity real estate firm AshbyCapital and co-investor and development partner Native Land have prelet the entirety of Kova KX, their new 70K SF life sciences development in London’s King’s Cross.
The deal represents the largest life sciences letting in the UK in 2025 and the largest in London since 2022, the partners said. On completion in 2027, the building will become the new headquarters of medical research organisation LifeArc.
Kova KX will involve the refurbishment and repositioning of 105 Judd Street in London’s Knowledge Quarter, King’s Cross. Designed by Stiff + Trevillion Architects, the project will retain and restore around 75% of the existing five-storey structure, with a two-storey extension increasing the total floor area from 57K SF to 70K SF.
The refurbishment has been designed to outperform Royal Institute of British Architects and Low Energy Transformation Initiative 2030 goals for embodied carbon, aiming for target emissions of 250 to 300 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metre. The building will be net-zero carbon in operation, including all-electric services, and the partners are targeting a BREEAM Outstanding rating.
The building is also expected to meet Containment Level 2 wet laboratory requirements.
Life sciences takeup across the Golden Triangle in Q1 exceeded 219K SF, a 103% quarter-on-quarter increase, data from Knight Frank showed. But Knight Frank pointed out that the activity was dominated by Arm’s 100K SF prelet of British Land’s Optic building at Peterhouse Technology Park. It also noted that 2024 represented a postpandemic nadir for leasing volumes in the sector.
Venture capital funding into the UK life sciences sector reached £1.1B in Q1, the strongest first quarter since 2021’s postpandemic peak and a 36% increase versus Q4 2024, Knight Frank said. VC funding and leasing are closely linked.
LifeArc has offices in Tavistock Square and scientific research facilities in Stevenage and Edinburgh. It has a specialist science team working at the nearby Francis Crick Institute in London.
Cushman & Wakefield and Knight Frank are the appointed leasing agents on Kova KX, and Savills represented LifeArc.
