A major schemeworth over £30m will help to bring more life sciences employers to Nottingham – the fastest-growing life science community in the UK – and is being announced today at MIPIM, the world’s largest property exhibition.
Land for the expansion of Nottingham’s thriving bioscience industry has now been secured west of Plough Lane, allowing the bioscience expansion to go-ahead. With planning permission already granted, the state-of-the-art life science ‘incubator’ will support over 300 specialist bioscience jobs in the city centre.
Councillor Jon Collins, Leader for Nottingham City Council and Portfolio Holder for Strategic Regeneration, said: “Nottingham is the fastest-growing life science community in the UK, and with millions of pounds of investment being ploughed into improving the city’s transport and infrastructure, this is our year of opportunity and the timing of this Bioscience expansion will now allow us to market this opportunity on the world’s stage.
“We are announcing to the world’s bioscience companies that Nottingham offers a great opportunity for employers to locate in a city with purpose-built facilities, a large talent pool, a thriving array of bioscience companies and lower costs than many competing science locations,” said Councillor Collins.
“With our two world-class universities also providing highly-trained graduates and centres of scientific excellence, we think we have a very strong package to attract new employers.”
The bioscience expansion will be located next to the renowned BioCity Nottingham building and will be a five-storey, 50,000 square foot ‘incubator’ facility fitted with high-tech ‘Containment Level Two’ biology and chemistry laboratories. These will be built in a range of sizes to allow companies to expand, with ancillary space for commercial leasing to both start-ups and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).
Construction is expected to start on the site in the summer, and the city council is already in negotiations with a preferred partner to become the building operator.
Councillor Collins added: “This development will not only provide local construction companies with a prestige development, create construction work opportunities for local people, but will also help to regenerate the east side of the city and reinforce the growing importance of life sciences to Nottingham’s economy while nurturing the industry in the city.”
The bioscience expansion is being delivered in conjunction with developers Willmott Dixon, Nottingham architects CPMG, Morgan Tucker, Pick Everard and Gleeds, with Wilmott Dixon, CPMG, Morgan Tucker and Gleeds all attending MIPIM as part of Team Nottingham (a team of 22 organisations working together to promote the opportunities that the city has to offer).
The funding for the initial development includes £6.5m from the Local Growth Fund, through the local enterprise partnership D2N2.
MIPIM is seen as a vital showcase for Nottingham’s development opportunities as delegates descend on the exhibition covering nearly 20,000m² and attracting 21,000 participants from 93 countries, including 4,500 investors, 3,000 company CEOs and chairmen, and 450 journalists.