Philip Grace Discusses Next Steps After i2 Office Departure

Published on January 6, 2016 - By Jo Meunier (née Disney)

Philip Grace has announced that he has left i2 Office to look at new opportunities. OT spoke to him earlier this month.

Having founded i2 Office in 2009, Philip Grace successfully grew i2 to become one of the largest serviced office companies in the UK, prior to leaving the organisation on 31st December 2015.

In June 2014, Philip Grace orchestrated the sale of i2 to OCS Group and it is now their third brand.

So what next for Philip? It’s well known within the industry that he has wanted to develop a global provider of flexible, managed and serviced office space. Over the last 18-months, he has spent considerable time exploring opportunities in the US, Middle East and South East Asia.

Philip commented, “To assist the sustainability of any Serviced Office Company and to prepare the business to ride economic cycles, an organisation ideally needs to have an international footprint and a varied client base. The venture needs to operate through a mixed portfolio of freehold, leasehold and joint venture agreements, thus delivering a variety of turnkey property solutions spanning collaborative working, traditional serviced office and larger managed solutions.”

Philip also commented, “Having successfully integrated i2 into OCS over the last 18-months, my departure now allows me the freedom to tie up with a global property institution and deliver, within their international real estate portfolio, an office solution which will allow the property company to become more competitive, sustainable and deliver greater shareholder value, reflecting the way organisations now wish to procure their real estate.

“Serviced Office is often used to describe a mixed bag of ‘flexible office options’. It is also important that serviced office, in whatever guise, becomes a shop window for what can be done with property. The industry needs to evolve continuously and become more ‘retail’ and ‘pop-up’, than a stuck-in-the-mud office solution.”

He concluded: “This flexibility can only work long term if delivered directly with the property owner. Rigid leases, upward only rent reviews and traditional L&T relationships are unlikely to be the solution.”

Philip can be contacted via email on [email protected] or 44(0) 7703 598971.