Woods Bagot Global Studio News
2023-05-16
All news
16 May 23

Woods Bagot working with Convene on new London location in Sancroft, St. Paul’s

Convene, a global hospitality company that designs and manages premium meeting, event, and flexible office spaces, has announced it will open a new 45,000-square-foot Meetings & Events venue in Sancroft, St. Paul’s, a Class-A redevelopment in Paternoster Square by Greycoat and Mitsui Fudosan. As with Convene’s first UK location, at 22 Bishopsgate, the design for this space is being done in collaboration with Woods Bagot.

The addition will support London demand for outsourced meeting and event space and comes on the heels of Convene acquiring etc.venues, which substantially grew its footprint across the UK.  Based on existing client needs, the new location will feature a 900-person plenary room, the largest space within the Convene global portfolio as well as the largest single above-ground room in the City of London.  Further at Sancroft, St. Paul’s, through a management agreement, Convene will design and operate the building’s tenant lounge and amenities.

More on Convene Sancroft, St. Paul’s:

  • 5,000 sq ft on the ground floor and the entire 40,000 sq ft floorplate on level one.
  • Seven unique meeting spaces, including one 900-person room.
  • Total capacity of 1,200 guests.
  • Expected to open for business in Q1 2024.

Convene is a single-solution meetings provider that offers in-house culinary, award-winning design, and AV and production services to deliver a turnkey experience for in-person and hybrid events. Its thoughtfully-designed meeting spaces can be custom-configured to accommodate various event types – from large conferences with main stage sessions and breakout rooms, trade shows and exhibitions, corporate social events, and more.

The Sancroft, St. Paul’s building will additionally offer a 3,000-square-foot amenity centre for all tenants, inclusive of a lounge area, cafe with barista, library, and unique programming; as a hospitality company with proven expertise in delivering premium workday experiences, Convene has been tapped to design, manage, and activate the amenity centre. The company will also operate the building reception for the entirety of Sancroft.

“In London alone, Convene has witnessed a 90% increase in demand for its Meetings & Events product year-over-year. There is a particularly strong appetite in the City of London and, with our new location at Sancroft, St. Paul’s we look forward to serving the meeting and event needs of nearby businesses.”

Elliott Sparsis, head of corporate development and real estate, Europe at Convene

How Convene is Leading the Evolution of the Modern Office Building

According to research from CBRE, 39% of occupiers in EMEA are looking to curated events or other workplace experiences to encourage return-to-office for employees.

Coming out of the pandemic, commercial real estate is at an inflection point and landlords are getting creative in how they stack buildings in order to create a more integrated ecosystem,” added Sparsis.  “Hospitality is at the core of everything Convene does and so we have the unique ability to not only create extraordinary meeting and event experiences within our spaces, but can bring our expertise in delivering an elevated workplace experience to everyone in Sancroft.  By partnering with landlords to amenetise their assets, Convene can simultaneously increase the building’s attractiveness to occupiers while bolstering monetisation for owners.”

Convene opened its first London location at 22 Bishopsgate in the Spring of 2022 and its model has already proven successful; 80% of tenants are utilising the in-building Convene offering for their meeting and event needs and have, in turn, been able to take an average of 5% less square-footage of private office space.  This trend is expected to continue at Sancroft where global law firm Goodwin Procter has signed 90,000 square-feet across three levels.

“Convene’s presence was a significant factor in our choice of Sancroft as our new London headquarters,” said Gemma Roberts, co-chair of the Goodwin London office.  “During our search process, we had the opportunity to experience their class-leading facilities at 22 Bishopsgate; the combination of flexibility – and consequently significant cost-savings – and quality were compelling features. We are looking forward to partnering with Convene as co-tenants of Sancroft.’”

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