Development
Introduction
Colworth Science Park is owned, developed and managed under a Joint Venture between Unilever and Goodman. The Joint Venture has received planning permission for a replacement Catering / Conferencing building, a new Innovation Centre to provide laboratory and office accommodation for academics and start-up R&D businesses and Grow-on space for medium sized companies.
The new development will enhance the services available at Colworth Science Park for current and future occupiers. They will largely replace existing facilities and will provide modern accommodation in keeping with the attractive campus environment.
Development
The development comprises four elements:
- The demolition of the existing Library and conference centre, which is the large, white square building in the bottom-centre of the planning application area marked in the photograph. This concrete building was built in the 1970s and now seems out of keeping with the adjacent Grade II listed Colworth House.
- A new 'Knowledge Hub' which will provide catering, meeting and conferencing for existing occupiers on the site, replacing existing facilities which will be demolished or closed. This will also provide space for our new academic partners, Cranfield School of Management plus Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing and Judge Business School Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning.
- The 'Innovation Centre', which will provide new, state-of-the-art laboratories and offices for local start-up R&D companies wanting to work and innovate with existing researchers on the park. This will be particularly good for the local economy. These companies will not be old, industrial businesses, which employ low-skilled labour, but small, high value companies; exactly the sort of modern, sustainable economic development that our region and local area are striving to achieve.
- The Grow-on Space will provide new laboratory and office space for medium size companies that have grown too large to be accommodated within the Innovation Centre.
This represents an additional 4,202 sq m of development at Colworth Science Park. There is currently 51,993 sq m of development at Colworth Science Park. Therefore, the development proposals represent an 8% increase in development.
Benefits
The developments will modernise the exiting facilities on site and are predicted to create 137 jobs. They will also provide space for two of the world's leading business schools and other scientific research groups, further supporting the economic prosperity of the region.
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