Space Northwest launches Liverpool Innovation Park
Space Northwest, the joint venture of Ashtenne and the North West Development Agency, has re-branded sites near Edge Lane as Liverpool Innovation Park.
Liverpool Innovation Park combines the former Marconi research centre recently known as Liverpool Digital, the former Mersey Transport depot site, now remediated and ready for development, and the established Wavertree Technology Park.
The park has capacity for 1m sq ft of floorspace and is reserved for firms from high technology and innovative sectors.
Space Northwest is aiming to link the park to the city centre area around the universities, where Neptune's Liverpool Science Park is based, an area now branded as Liverpool Knowledge Quarter. The quarter and innovation park will, the JV said, be linked by Liverpool Innovation Corridor, which "provides a two-way flow of businesses, talent, ideas and money, which will benefit research, company development, job creation and graduate retention".
The development land on LIP has the capacity to house six new buildings totalling up to 400,000 sq ft. These will be reserved for knowledge-based, research-led businesses.
Wayne Locke, director of Space Northwest, explained: "Liverpool Innovation Park offers huge potential for industries in the knowledge and innovation sectors for two principal reasons – firstly its excellent strategic location within the city of Liverpool and secondly because it has high capacity, resilient fibre optic connections – vital for today's leading technological companies.
"The ultimate objective is to develop a vibrant business community at the LIP, networked along the corridor into the Knowledge Quarter. Institutions and businesses at each end of the Innovation Corridor will be operated and promoted alongside each other as complementary elements. They will offer a single innovation economy, thereby attracting further investment to the city."
Space Northwest is currently marketing 230,000 sq ft of available accommodation out of a total of 410,000 sq ft of space at Liverpool Digital. Existing occupiers include Liverpool John Moores University's International Centre for Digital Content and Aimes Grid Services.
The joint venture is investing £5m in speculatively refurbishing additional accommodation, adding a café and meeting rooms.
