Stevenage approves one of Europe's biggest life sciences campuses
Stevenage Council has approved one of Europe’s largest Life Science campuses - £900m life science campus with 1.6 million square foot of lab, office and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facilities, and creating 5,000 jobs.
The project is being run by Reef and UBS Asset Management. The new 'Elevate Quarter' campus is next to GSK’s Global R&D facility, the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC). It will further enhance Stevenage's reputation as Europe's leading cluster for advanced therapies, housing 40 organisations and 3,500 people.
Construction should now get underway imminently and completion of phase one due to take place in 2025. There will be 15 buildings at the campus with a central green with an interconnecting network of paths and open spaces.
This will create a world-class, sustainable, and connected life science campus, designed for early-stage businesses through to commercialisation.
Also involved with facilitating the project have been SBC, the UK Government and the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
Dr Sally Ann Forsyth OBE, CEO at SBC, commented: "This is a landmark day for Stevenage and UK science, strengthening our position on the global stage for technological and scientific excellence. This campus will build on the supportive environment created here and our reputation as a leading location for the scale up of companies and commercialisation of therapies that will have a transformative impact on future health outcomes."
Piers Slater, Joint Chief Executive, at Reef Group, said: "The approval of our new life science campus in Stevenage further cements its position as Europe’s leading cluster for advanced therapies. Stevenage is ideally positioned to attract world-class talent and the campus will facilitate further collaboration between major multinationals and biotechs. The campus has been designed to allow these life science businesses to grow and scale-up over time and to create an open and accessible environment for both employees and the wider public."
Olivia Drew, Portfolio Manager, Real Estate and Private Markets, at UBS Asset Management, said: "The delivery of the new life science campus will leverage years of unparalleled experience across both UBS and Reef. The buildings have been carefully designed to be at the cutting edge of sustainability and will facilitate world-leading R&D and advanced manufacturing. The new campus will support thousands of new jobs and boost the UK’s position as a global life sciences leader."
Comment
As we heard at the sell-out 2023 PING Conference at Hertfordshire in the heart of the Golden Triangle, there is a lot of demand for new lab and manufacturing space. This exciting development will help to meet the growing demand for life sciences lab space and GMP manufacturing facilities in the UK.
We have been supporting SBC and working in collaboration with the Hertfordshire LEP over the last 10 years to enhance Hertfordshire as an exciting and growing area for life sciences, and this latest news is another really exciting development for life sciences in the UK and the Golden Triangle.