BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS: Oxford Properties, London
As the real estate investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension plans, Oxford Properties has become a leader in real estate investment, development, and management in Canada, the US, and Europe.
When OMERS sought to establish its European headquarters in the famed Leadenhall Building in London, Structure Tone won the job competitively, thanks especially to their creative digital construction components. Since then, the team has developed a valuable relationship they have been able to leverage into several more successful projects together.
The OMERS project fit out 25,000sf over two stories of the building nicknamed “The Cheesegrater” for its uniquely tapered design. The fit-out design, by HLW, included an intricate staircase, multifaceted, folded ceiling in the boardroom, and complex AV and MEP systems. Structure Tone employed digital construction techniques like BIM/VC as early as the tender stage, treating it like a live project to help resolve some potential challenges early and allow the team to hit the ground running.
Since the OMERS project, collaboration has continued to drive Structure Tone’s work with Oxford Properties. Together, the project team has worked on a range of project types, from full office fit-outs to specific amenity enhancements:
OMERS: Full CAT B fit-out with internal staircase. Completed in 2015.
Blue Fin Building: CAT A fit-out to prepare two floors for tenants and extend the building’s amenity area with a centralized coffee shop and restaurant, externally extended canteen, and events space. Completed in 2019.
Mid-City Place: 6th and first floor CAT A fit-out with event terrace space. Ongoing.
84 Grosvenor Street: Two floors of CAT A fit-out and one floor “plug and play” CAT B office space including furniture. Ongoing.
Structure Tone maintains the same key project directors across the Oxford Properties portfolios and the same delivery teams, where possible, to make sure each project continues to benefit from the shared experiences and lessons learned from the last and that “team” attitude extends to each new effort.
“The team ethic and Oxford’s close involvement in our first project with them was consistent throughout and a key success factor,” says Dean Manning, Structure Tone managing director. “That collaboration and lessons learned together are invaluable.”