Science & innovation real estate specialist Mission Street and investment manager BentallGreenOak (BGO) have joined forces to deliver a new life sciences facility in Cambridge, UK.
The JV partners plan to transform a 7.8-acre (3 ha) site into a 100,000 ft2 (9,000 m2) science and innovation campus located within the Cambridge Southern Cluster, home to the UK’s highest density of biotech companies.
Construction has started on phase one of the scheme, known as The Press, which the firms say will provide much-needed fitted lab space in supply-strapped Cambridge.
According to market data tracked by Mission Street, there is demand for over one million ft2 of lab space in Cambridge, whereas only 10,000 ft2 is currently available.
Phase one of the development will comprise the refurbishment of a former printing press, creating 16,000 ft2 of fully-fitted lab and office space across two units, which is due for completion in Q3 2023. Phase two will see the delivery of a newly constructed 65,000 ft2 building and is due to complete in summer 2024.
The Mission Steet-BGO joint venture has a development pipeline of over one million sft2 of lab and office space in key strategic locations. The JV recently acquired a 23-acre site to the east of Central Cambridge, where it plans to create an urban science and innovation district that will serve the region’s start-ups and scale-ups.
Artem Korolev, founder and CEO of Mission Street, commented: ‘As part of our plans for The Press, we are bringing much-needed purpose-built life science space online quickly into market that is suffering from an acute shortage of stock.’
He added: ‘Britain’s life sciences sector is at an inflection point, and to fully realise the potential of our world-leading research and discovery, we must focus on providing the facilities that will enable our burgeoning R&D ecosystem to scale and commercialise.’
