Glass office tower

Commercial Real Estate

Mixed-use, corporate campuses, and ground-up developments — projects that have to perform commercially the day they open and still feel like part of the city in 30 years.

Where we focus

The deal economics, the design intent, and the build sequence — all on one team

Commercial real estate has the tightest margins for delivery error. We work design-build for most CRE clients because the alternative — a designer disconnected from procurement realities — costs the project more time and money than the lower-fee structure ever saves. Our in-house cost team prices every design move while the ink is still wet.

Average CRE project size: $40–180m. We've delivered single assets up to 720,000 sq ft and portfolios crossing $500m across multiple cities. About 45% of our annual revenue comes from this sector.

Mixed-use scheme on completion
Selected work

Recent commercial projects

  • The Avery, Brooklyn 01

    The Avery — Mixed-Use

    Brooklyn, NY

  • Holloway District Mixed-Use 02

    Holloway District

    London, UK

  • Marlow Design District 03

    Marlow Design District

    Toronto, ON

  • 234 Kingsway Road 04

    234 Kingsway Road

    Manchester, UK

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CRE delivery record

What our commercial portfolio looks like in numbers

  • 14m+ sq ft CRE delivered

    Across the last decade

  • 0% On-time handover

    Within 4 weeks of contracted date

  • 0% Occupancy at TCO+90d

    Across leased CRE assets

  • 11 yrs Avg client tenure

    On our top CRE accounts

What we bring to CRE

Six things commercial clients lean on us for

  • Pre-let-aware design

    We design with the leasing team in the room. Floorplate efficiency, tenant fit-out flexibility, and amenity programming are decisions, not afterthoughts.

  • Cost-certainty contracts

    GMP with open books. Lenders see the math; clients see the risks. Most of our CRE work is design-build under a fixed fee.

  • Brownfield expertise

    Eight of our last ten CRE projects had contaminated land, party walls, or in-occupation neighbours. We staff for those conditions, not against them.

  • Phased TCO and handover

    Retail tenants want fitting access at month 14, not month 24. We sequence handover by tenant package, not by overall completion.

  • Embodied-carbon spec lock

    SBTi-aligned material specs from RIBA Stage 3, with project-level carbon budgets that hold through tender.

  • Lender-ready reporting

    Monthly drawdown packs that satisfy senior debt and mezz lenders. We've built the same reports for 14 different lender formats.

In their words

“Meridian's design-build model put leasing, cost, and construction in the same room from week one. The floorplate efficiency and tenant fit-out flexibility we got out of that — directly from the contractor — is what kept us at full pre-let when the market softened.”

Helen Marsh
Helen Marsh Director of Estate · Lakeside Holdings
Frequently asked

Commercial-sector questions

  • Can you join after planning is consented?

    Yes — and we often do. Our typical design-build CRE engagement starts at RIBA Stage 4 / DD or later, with feasibility carried forward as a fixed-fee mobilisation package.

  • How do you handle tenant fit-out coordination?

    We dedicate a fit-out coordinator from the project team six months before TCO, working directly with each tenant's chosen GC. Our role is shell-and-core delivery and interface management — we don't aim to monopolise the fit-out work.

  • What's your delivery on schedule reliability?

    92% of our CRE projects since 2020 hit handover within 4 weeks of contracted date. Where we slipped, the cause and corrective action were published in our annual report.

  • Can you work on speculative schemes?

    Yes — about a third of our CRE pipeline is speculative. We bring more conservative design assumptions and an earlier value-engineering review when there's no anchor pre-let to drive the brief.

  • How do you price contingency on CRE work?

    Site-specific risk register, bottom up, with named owners. Typical CRE contingency: 4–7% post-DD, drawn down monthly with the client. No black-box reserve.

Have a CRE brief?

We'll tell you within a week if we're right for it.

Bring the planning consent, the design status, and the bits you haven't figured out yet. Initial conversations are free, and we'll tell you straight if another contractor is a better fit.

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Project review session