Space NW adds café to innovation park

Space Northwest has installed local business Bean to run the new café at Liverpool Innovation Park on Edge Lane.

Bean's 500 sq ft café opened last week in the newly created £4m reception area, which includes meeting rooms and an additional 1,223 sq ft of seating, opening out onto an external terrace in the park's gardens.

LIP, on the site of the former Marconi factory, is now home to 80 companies. Mark Tock, innovation manager at Liverpool Innovation Park, said: "The café marks the final piece in the jigsaw of the recent £4m redevelopment of the Edge Lane main reception area and we are delighted to welcome Bean into the Park. bean@LIP will complement existing catering facilities on our adjacent Wavertree Technology Park site, and further enhance the Park's sense of community. While longer term, this is another step towards achieving the vision of expanding our amenities to include a gym and crèche facilities to service both our tenants and adjacent residential communities."

Bean was established in 2008 by Jon Whyte and Vip Bhatt. The LIP outlet is the company's fifth.

Liverpool Innovation Park is operated by Space North West, a joint venture between Ashtenne Industrial Fund and the North West Development Agency.