The company was established as Lendlease by Dick Dusseldorp[3] in 1958 to provide finance for building contracts being undertaken by Civil & Civic.

[19] In late February 2011, Lendlease acquired DASCO in order to position itself to take advantage of the impending Obama administration Health sector boom.

In February 2022, Lendlease reported a first half loss of $264 million, which it attributed to one-off restructuring costs, COVID-19 issues and asset sales.

[28] It described its overseas markets as a "drag" on shareholder returns; its new strategy will focus on simplifying the firm's structure, reducing costs and leveraging its competitive strengths.

[37][38] Their ADI property is the largest intact area of the biodiverse and endangered plant community, the "Cumberland Plain Woodland".

[40] Lendlease Project Management & Construction (previously Bovis Lendlease) provided construction management services for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York,[41] in addition to a number of other major public buildings throughout the U.S. A Public Private Partnership involved InterContinental Hotels Group and Lendlease, where they joined forces in the Privatization of Army Lodging to deliver quality hotels to United States Army Soldiers, their Families, and official guests of the United States Army.

[43] Soaring Heights, a 6 MW solar development at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona, United States, is a large Public Partnerships business in the US.

[48] Major construction projects carried out by the company include: In 2008, the company and a subcontractor abatement firm, the John Galt Corporation, were charged with numerous OSHA safety violations after a fire broke out and killed two firefighters at the Deutsche Bank Building, a Manhattan skyscraper being demolished in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Only when they reached the dangerous area that was on fire, did they realise the system did not have any water pressure, and they died trying to retreat amid the confusion.

[87] In 2012, Lendlease agreed to pay $56 million in fines and restitution after admitting that the company had routinely over-billed clients and evaded government rules regarding the hiring of women and minority-owned firms.

For a ten-year time span ending in 2009, the company along with others devised a scheme to defraud federal, state and local government contracting agencies as well as private clients.

[88] On 29 October 2012 the long boom of a Lendlease construction crane atop the 1,004 foot high One57 snapped during Hurricane Sandy forcing the evacuation of several buildings in Midtown Manhattan.

[90] Manchester's Opposition Leader and former MP John Leech uncovered a history of legal, ethical and worker safety controversy surrounding the two shortlisted companies (Laing O'Rourke and Lendlease).

[91][90] He said that "Under absolutely no circumstances" should Lendlease ever be considered for a council contract again until they paid a £3 million Grenfell-style cladding bill in the Green Quarter of Manchester.