NOTTINGHAM City Council has this week given the go ahead to a new state-of-the-art life science incubator facility that will support up to 200 specialist bioscience jobs in Nottingham city centre.
The decision by the City Council’s Strategic Regeneration Committee follows the announcement of £6.5 million from the Local Growth Fund to expand bioscience facilities in Nottingham city centre. The funds will be used to develop a new building on brownfield land close to the already successful BioCity Nottingham facility.
The City Council is now asking bioscience firms interested in taking space in the new building to come forward to help shape how the new facilities will be used.
Any new occupiers will join an already flourishing bioscience sector in the city. Life sciences and healthcare sectors currently account for 55,000 jobs across 1,400 firms in the Nottingham city region, and life sciences is identified as a high growth sector in Nottingham’s economic Growth Plan. Nottingham is also home to leading international brands such as Alliance Boots and Reckitt Benckiser as well as local high growth companies including Aesica and Sygnature Discovery.
As well as enabling regeneration of the east side of the city centre, the 50,000 square foot new facility will primarily provide move on space for growing bioscience firms, accommodating up to 200 jobs on the site.
The state-of-the-art facility will be fitted with biology and chemistry laboratories and ancillary space for commercial leasing to both start-up and existing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the bioscience sector. The facilities will be particularly well suited to drug discovery companies to complement the emerging cluster in the existing BioCity campus. As well as serving the existing laboratory market in the city, it is hoped the new hi tech building will attract new firms into Nottingham.
The new building will provide Containment Level Two laboratories across a range of sizes, with these being available on flexible commercial terms. The City Council plans to bring in a specialist company to manage the facility and provide a fully serviced offering to the occupying companies.
Companies wishing to register an interest in leasing laboratory accommodation in the new facility should contact Anthony Everitt, Senior Regeneration Officer at Nottingham City Council, on 0115 8764869 or email anthony.everitt@nottnghamcity.gov.uk
The project is part of the Local Growth Deal with Local Enterprise Partnership D2N2 announced on Monday 7 July, which will see £174.4m invested to help accelerate economic growth across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire over the next six years.
It is expected that a planning application for the development will be submitted in September 2014, with construction due to commence in spring 2015.
Councillor Nick McDonald, portfolio holder for jobs and growth at Nottingham City Council, said: “We are delighted to see a significant amount of Local Growth Fund investment being made in Nottingham to help our local economy to grow.
“As identified in the Nottingham Growth Plan, life sciences is a key sector for the future success of Nottingham’s economy. We are therefore particularly pleased that, through this funding, the development of facilities for Nottingham’s bioscience firms can go ahead to support both new start-ups and expanding businesses in this sector.
“As we progress plans for the design of the building, we now need local businesses to work with us to make sure the facilities developed are able to meet the specific needs of our growing bioscience industry.”
