BAM wins first phase of Lancaster health campus
BAM Construction has won the race to build phase one of Lancaster University’s Health Innovation Campus in a contract worth an estimated £30m, it is understood.
The 350,000 sq ft campus plan has been an aspiration of the university for a decade, and outline consent was secured for plans drawn up by Taylor Young, now IBI, and WYG, which were mothballed following the closure of key funding partner the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
Following a fresh consent, and the 2016 transfer of 28 acres, March this year saw the university formally launch the tender process for a contractor to build the first 80,000 sq ft building, to be located on a previously undeveloped plot to the north of the Bailrigg campus. The building is to house an innovation hub and has been designed by John McAslan & Partners.
The development is intended to provide “a platform for open innovation, drawing together innovators, academics, health and care providers, businesses and members of the public to co-create and co-evaluate innovations designed to improve health and healthcare.”
Various parts of the university’s faculty of health and medicine will relocate to the new building as part of phase one, with the remainder being rehoused in phase two. Phase one also includes SME-focused business space. The development requires the construction of a highway junction to the A6 and access road.
The project is to be part-funded by the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership and the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2014 to 2020.
BAM is already working with Lancaster University, having won the £30m contract for the redevelopment of its management school in June.