Harwell Campus exceeds Oxfordshire's record
Suzanne Lovell
Harwell Campus has revealed the 160,000 sq ft of speculatively-built Grade A space it let in 2017 was the largest the county has ever seen in a year.
Bosses at the 710-acre science and technology park - a former RAF base - unveiled details of the site’s success with a presentation to property professionals on Thursday, February 22.
Of the let space, 83 per cent went to innovative tech companies in space, life sciences and energy sectors with half expanding on, and half locating to, Harwell.
Recent lettings include GMV, AgSpace, Mirion, Keit Ltd, SMS Environmental, and the first investment firm, Longwall Ventures, taking around 20,000 sq ft of space between them for a mix of office, lab and high-tech manufacturing.
William Cooper, partner at Harwell Oxford Partners said: “In 2017 we de-risked the largest speculative development in Oxfordshire, attracting more innovative companies than any other site in this region.
“Our successful growth is down to our disruptive approach to commercial property development, introducing ‘Science Warehousing’ to the UK, with the intention of making the UK fit for Industry need’s if we are to grow as a high-tech industrial economy.”
This year development will focus on the completion of a 60,000 sq ft science warehouse called Zephyr; fit out of 26,000 sq ft Quad building and its accompanying gym, and restaurant; completion of two new research and development buildings and a planning outline application for 1,000 homes.
For more on the remarkable success of Harwell, look out for our quarterly Thames Tap newspaper, due out in April.
Source: Thames Valley Property No 105 (tvproperty.co.uk)
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Photo by Lucas Vasques on Unsplash