Green light for Canary Wharf office-to-labs job

Development manager LS Estates has got the green light to repurpose an office building in London’s Canary Wharf for life sciences and technology tenants.The 17 Columbus Courtyard project designed by architect Scott Brownrigg will see the building expanded to provide 250,000 square feet of flexible laboratory and office space spanning nine upper floors.Anticipated to be finished by autumn 2025, the £200m scheme exemplifies the changing focus of Canary Wharf toward life sciences.The overhaul will minimise both embodied and operational carbon by retaining as much of the existing building as possible and targeting of BREEAM Excellent certification.Paul Bailey, managing director Life Sciences at LS Estates said: “We have begun to witness the emergence of Canary Wharf as a new life sciences cluster within London and 17 Columbus Courtyard will be one of the first lab-enabled buildings of scale to satisfy that increasing demand.“With flexible floorspace and specification options available, we feel that occupiers will be able to focus on growing their businesses in a suitably collaborative environment”.