Work on the latest £17.8m 43,000 sq ft office and laboratory development at Sci-Tech Daresbury in Liverpool city region is now complete. Tony McDonough reports
A 43,000 sq ft office and laboratory development at Sci-Tech Daresbury has been completed.
Project Violet comprises three buildings. V1 offers 19,000 sq ft while V2 and V3 each provide 12,000 sq ft of accommodation. Lead contractor Willmott Dixon has handed over the keys to Sci-Tech Daresbury, Liverpool city region’s science and innovation campus.
Its offers employment space for up to 332 people. The development was supported by £8.4m funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, comprising a £2.5m loan from the Urban Development Fund and £5.9m from the Combined Authority’s Chrysalis Fund.
In December, planning approval was secured from Halton Council for Ultraviolet, which is located next to Project Violet and forms the next phase of development within Sci-Tech Daresbury. Ultraviolet will comprise a further 180,000 sq ft of grade A office and laboratory space.
Established in 2006, Sci-Tech Daresbury is already home to almost 150 high-tech companies. In December 2010 a new private-public joint-venture partnership was created. It comprises developer Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and Halton Council.
Tenants include tech giants IBM and Hitachi, co-located with the STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory, part of UK Research and Innovation. More than 30 new tenants joined the campus during 2021.
John Downes, chief executive of Langtree and chairman of Sci-Tech Daresbury, said: “Project Violet reaching completion is yet another moment of real excitement at a time when our campus is truly going from strength to strength.
“Our ambitious plans for propelling science and technology forward in our region though investing in quality laboratory and office space have already been vindicated by the strong interest in Violet, and we look forward to sharing details of our first tenants in the coming weeks.”
STFC’s Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI) has also announced £172m funding from the Government with an in-kind contribution of £38m from its strategic partner, IBM Research.
This will be a key component of the UK’s advancement in the development and industrial application of key technologies such as data analytics, AI and quantum computing.