Hundreds of jobs could be created if a new £5.2 million business hub, shaped like a Raleigh wheel, is built at a University of Nottingham campus.
The university hopes 50 businesses – including student enterprises and other start-ups – would move into its proposed Technology Entrepreneurship Centre by 2019.
It would create about 200 new jobs on site and another 150 once companies developed in the next four years. It would be built at the university’s Innovation Park – near the site of the old Raleigh bicycle factory – after it attracted Government funding to create one of the first university enterprise zones in the country.
Plans have been submitted to Nottingham City Council for the Jubilee Campus scheme, in Triumph Road, and the project could be completed by spring next year.
Innovation Park operations director Bob Scott said: “This will create high-value jobs in technology businesses, linking with university technology.
“It could keep young student entrepreneurs in the city, developing their own businesses rather than going elsewhere.
“It will be ideal for businesses that want to be close to the university as a centre for research, tap into the student and graduate body and use our resources.”
Raleigh, which moved distribution from the site in the 1990s, employed about 7,000 people at its peak. The Jubilee Campus opened in 1999 and the Innovation Park could be home to about 1,200 technology jobs by 2019.
Nottingham City Council portfolio holder for jobs and growth Nick McDonald said: “This is an excellent illustration of why our universities are so important to Nottingham’s economy, not just in delivering higher education and skills but in helping to drive entrepreneurism, job creation and growth in key areas such as the technology sector.”
University vice-chancellor, Professor Sir David Greenaway, said: “Entrepreneurs will be able to access expertise from across the university, which will help them develop innovative new products and services and give them a crucial competitive edge.”
