Sci-Tech Daresbury opens Project Violet tender

The developers behind Sci-Tech Daresbury have started the search for a contractor to deliver the £13m Project Violet, the next phase of speculative development at the site in Cheshire.

The appointed contractor will deliver a 43,000 sq ft grade A office complex comprising three buildings: two of them 12,500 sq ft and one of 18,000 sq ft.

Each three storeys high, the buildings will be situated at the gateway of the campus on Innovation Way. The development is to be accompanied by major landscaping improvements around the site. The development will also include 140 parking spaces.

The contract also states that development includes extension of the existing linear park landscape treatment along Innovation Way and into the development site, improving key routes through the campus, and enhancing the gateway to the Sci-Tech Daresbury site. It also includes the extension and improvement of the existing highways network with the creation of a new access road to serve the Project Violet site and future development sites to the east.

Neal Biddle, group development director of Langtree, said: “Project Violet is the latest phase in the expansion of our award-winning Sci-Tech Daresbury site, providing new buildings that continue to support the growing demand to accommodate science, research and innovation businesses.

“We have over the last two years substantially upgraded and expanded the campus and this further development underlines not only our on-going success, but also our commitment to the region and the market demand for what we are proposing.

“The campus is now home to more than 130 businesses and we have regular enquiries from others looking to relocate or start so the need for this space is critical and the plan is for work to start next summer completing 12 months later.”

The project is being funded using the Enterprise Zone retained business rates and investment from the site’s joint venture partners Langtree, Halton Borough Council and the Science & Technology Facilities Council.

Already built out at the scheme are the Techspace One laboratory and offices building, the fully let 10,000 sq ft Techspace Two, the 24,000 sq ft Innovation Centre and the 36,000 sq ft Vanguard House.

The tender is being run by Halton on behalf of the partnership. Expresions of interest are expected before 24 January 2019, with invitations to tender issued around 20 February.