London, 5th Sept – Feldberg Capital (‘Feldberg’) has appointed Luke Duckworth as Fund Manager for Cora, its pioneering £500m brown-to-green workplace fund targeting refurbishment opportunities in London’s West End, formerly known as ReForm.
Based in Feldberg’s London office, Luke will be responsible for managing Cora’s assets, investor relations and supporting ongoing capital raising for the fund. Luke has over a decade’s experience in the real estate industry and joins from Nuveen Real Estate where he was Assistant Fund Manager of a €2bn fund that invested in diversified opportunities in European cities across 15 markets. In this role Luke oversaw asset management initiatives, transactions and led the fund’s ESG strategies. Prior to this Luke worked in a real estate finance role at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Cora’s was launched in October 2023 to invest in energy inefficient ‘brown’ offices and use Feldberg’s tried and tested innovative ESG capability to retrofit and reposition these assets into modern green workplaces. The Fund targets assets in Central London’s growth locations underpinned by excellent connectivity and amenity, such as Covent Garden, Soho, Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury. Following strong investor appetite for its strategy Cora has already completed two acquisitions since launch with the purchase of 21-25 Bedford Street, a prominent building close to Covent Garden Piazza and 8 Bloomsbury Street, a 33,448 sq ft property located close to Tottenham Court Road station.
Cora is an impact fund focused on both decarbonisation as well as delivering on social objectives, which Luke will also be focused on. It is one of the first UK funds to link a proportion of the manager’s performance fees to pre-determined ESG targets, creating alignment between investors’ ESG ambitions and financial returns. Every Cora asset will also have a local charity partnership that will be supported, which could mean support with or spaces for charity events, scaling local food bank initiatives or sponsorship of local employment fairs.
David Turner, Managing Partner of Feldberg commented: “We welcome Luke to the team. His experience will accompany that of our existing colleagues as we continue to roll out our strategy for Cora. We launched the fund in response to growing dislocation between healthy, tech-enabled, green workplace assets where tenant demand is exceptionally strong, and older, less energy-efficient offices that are at risk of asset stranding. Luke will be an invaluable asset as we take advantage of the exciting opportunities we currently see in the market to drive attractive risk adjusted returns for our
investors.”
Luke Duckworth, Director at Feldberg said: “Feldberg’s track record, including the quality of its ESG led projects, was a real draw for me in wanting to join the firm. I am excited by Cora’s clear mission to transform well-connected West End office buildings in amenity-rich locations into the type of green, dynamic workspaces modern occupiers are demanding, while capitalising on an attractive market entry point, possibly the best we have seen in over a decade. Felberg has the team, network and backing to capitalise on this opportunity and I look forward to being part of it.”