Crown Estate appoints delivery chief for urban projects

The Crown Estate has appointed John Nicholson as its head of delivery and programme management, to lead construction across its urban development pipeline.

Nicholson, who was awarded an OBE for his role in delivering London 2012 Olympics venues for the Olympic Delivery Authority, will oversee the roll-out of major projects across the UK.

His most recent role was vice-president for project delivery at entertainment firm Legends International. He will report to Kristy Lansdown, development managing director at the Crown Estate.

The Crown Estate’s current urban holdings comprise 930,000 square metres of workspace, retail and leisure space in London’s West End. It also has a national pipeline of up to 1.77 million square metres of workspace and 56,000 homes.

Nicholson’s brief will include embedding the organisation’s safety-first approach and delivering new developments under the Crown Estate’s Build to Last strategy.

The Crown Estate operates as an independent commercial business with a £16bn portfolio including Regent Street and St James’s in London, rural landholdings and Windsor Great Park.

Source: Crown Estate announcement