Opportunity London trip to NYC by Jo Cowen

I was honoured to be part of the London delegation that attended the Opportunity London trip to New York at the end of June to discuss and exchange on the challenges faced by both cities in terms of regeneration, innovation and investment.

Before getting into more details, a huge thank you to Jace Tyrrell and Opportunity London for such a fantastic programme! Amazing to discover the synergy between London and New York in terms of the challenges that they face, and lovely to see so many familiar faces and make new connections within the delegation.

New York, like London, is wrestling with the same critical questions about what meaningful and long lasting regeneration looks like and how to deliver affordable homes to its residents. Like London, it has had significant growth since Covid and is building its workplace economy year on year. The challenges they face, like London, is around the delivery of affordable homes for its workers and residents. Whilst they are not dealing with challenges and impact of GW2 and the Building Safety Act, inflation remains a key challenge.

This visit reinforced the importance of global collaboration—learning from best-in-class examples and exploring how to adapt those lessons to our own cities. Especially in terms of public led funding and tax initiatives.

Key highlights of the trip included the visit to Hudson Yards by Related Argent. This was regeneration on a whole new scale that was immensely impressive. We had a brilliant session with Ken Wong and Frank Monterisi including a fascinating discussion on affordable housing funding models in NYC vs. London and their new scheme at Millet point.

Thanks to Tom Goodall and Matt Flood for arranging this. It’s clear that the Joint Venture between Related and Argent continues to flourish.

At the New York City Economic Development Corporation, it was clear how closely aligned we are in our shared commitment to inclusive development. A visit to Nuveen’s Anchor Green project in Queens further highlighted how affordable housing can be delivered at scale. Big thanks to Jason C. Jarrell, Shawn Lese, and Rebecca Nemirovsky (Disbrow).

Further visits to James Town, the Highline and Grosvenor Island projects re-iterated how much we can learn from New York.

It was also fantastic to spend time with Jules Pipe and Tom Copley and understand their aspirations for delivery of homes in London. Cllr. Stephen Cowan shared his ambitions for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham which centred on Innovation.

All in all a wonderful trip.