Year in review

Before we log off, we’ve pulled out a few of our highlights from the last 12 months.

Our retail and leisure portfolio continued to flourish with several exciting new signings, as well as customers upsizing over the course of the year to further boost the strong retail mix within Marylebone Village. Some highlights include:

• Vince & Sealskinz completed deals inside one month to open prior to Christmas, proving that when parties align there is no delay.
• Following successful pop-ups on Marylebone High Street over the last 5 years, PLATFORM, the sustainable concept store featuring a community of independent and emerging designers, artists and makers, opened in the summer on Marylebone Lane.
• An innovative new concept for Marylebone Village, Rebase opened on St Vincent Street offering a wide range of rejuvenating, wellness services from ice baths and cryotherapy to traditional and infrared saunas.
• Oh My Cream!, the clean beauty concept store that offers customers a curation of the finest brands.
• Popular contemporary women’s fashion brand Varley, opened its second London store on Marylebone High Street.
• Longstanding women’s fashion wear specialist ME+EM also signed a new lease, upsizing its previous store to a new flagship unit.
• RIXO reopened a refreshed store boasting hand painted illustrations throughout the space.
• FARM Rio, Brazil’s beloved women’s clothing and lifestyle brand, opened their second London store in Marylebone Village.

We recently launched a rebranding of the Harley Street Health District, which is something we’re hugely excited about and it reflects an evolution in our approach to focusing on preventative and predictive solutions to health driven by innovation.

• This includes the upcoming launch of Hale House. Hale House will be delivered in partnership with Spacemade. Initially comprising three buildings, with a total of 38,000 sq ft, we hope this will emerge as a leading London location for HealthTech start-ups, investors and venture capital firms.
• We committed in excess of £52m to the project in three initial buildings, including the substantial reconfiguration of each, transforming the spaces to appeal to occupiers in the HealthTech industry. 
• Demand for space in and around Harley Street was robust with additions including Re:Cognition Health and the Retina Clinic both signing new leases while HCA substantially increased its footprint in recent months with the opening of their new Women’s Health Centre at 27-29 Harley Street.

2024 saw the launch of our flexible office offering, Elmtree, in response to shifting working patterns and growing customer demand. In partnership with Spacemade, our flexible workspace operating partner, Elmtree has already expanded into its second site at 32 Welbeck Street, building on the success of the first Elmtree location at 34/36 Queen Anne Street.

• The commercial and residential teams also completed multiple high quality building refurbishment projects.
• Residential lettings were boosted by the ongoing shortage for the best stock and our in-house team completed over 80% of new lettings. In an independent survey completed in July, 86% of our residential customers were either satisfied or very satisfied with our service with the team helping to improve our Google rating score to 4.8 out of 5.

We also made good progress against our sustainability strategy, deCarbon.

• After launching deCarbon towards the end of 2023, we’ve seen significant improvements in energy efficiency and emissions reductions across our head office, travel activities and managed properties.
• For the first time we are reporting full coverage across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions categories and have carried out a net zero carbon assessment at our head office.
• Another vital part of our deCarbon strategy is collaborative work with our supply chain partners to make meaningful changes for a sustainable future. We launched our Sustainable Procurement Policy to help communicate these priorities.
• We committed to net zero carbon by 2040 – an ambitious target but one we are focused on meeting, working alongside Verco who supported us in delivering a number of net zero carbon assets across our estate.
• We also recently agreed to an AI technology pilot with MapMortar to support how we plan and prioritise our pathway to decarbonisation.

Supporting our local community is a key priority for us every year and there were multiple highlights throughout the year.

• The Marylebone Summer Festival saw 25,000 people come together for an exciting day of activities, raising a total of £40,000 for the Young Westminster Foundation.
• Our annual Marylebone Christmas Lights event transformed Marylebone High Street into a stunning festive spectacle, featuring late-night shopping, food and gift stalls, children's rides, and live music performances.
• This year, the occasion was marked by actor Martin Freeman switching on the lights, officially heralding the start of Christmas in Marylebone Village. Thanks to the support of the local community and visitors, the event raised a remarkable total of £25,000 for the charity partner, Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

As you can see, a huge amount has been achieved and I see good reasons for optimism and more achievements throughout 2025.

To all our colleagues, customers, partners, and suppliers, a massive thank you for your efforts and support throughout the year - and a very Merry Christmas.

- Mark Kildea, Chief Executive, The Howard de Walden Estate

(Photo credit: Dave Parry, PA Wire)