| Granta Park Location Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6GP Contact Details Contact: Roz Bird, Marketing and Asset Manager Tel: 01223 893710 Email: rbird@mepc.com Website: www.grantapark.co.uk Title  Granta Park Ltd is a joint venture between the property company MEPC and the research institute TWI.MEPC has been a prominent name in UK commercial property for more than 60 years with an outstanding track record of responsible management and development. The company manages eight Business Estates in prime regional locations throughout the UK and provides over 10m square feet of high-quality space for more than 1,000 organisations, employing 20,000 people. Its customers benefit from: - proactive local management - a strong sense of community - a huge range of flexible accommodation - safe and attractive environments - excellent transport links. TWI is Europe's largest independent Research and Technology organisation. For over 35 years TWI has worked with companies to help them to meet technology demands and develop cost-effective products. Assistance to companies ranges from simple advice on the selection of materials and joining technology through to the design and prototyping of new products and business process support. The Development The Park, with B1b planning consent, has been developed exclusively for high-tech companies involved in Research and Development. Current occupiers include Alizyme, Gilead, MedImmune, Pfizer and PPD. Work on the green-field site for Granta Park commenced in 1998 and since that time has grown to 600,000 square feet of laboratory and office space with 2,000 people working on the park each day. Planning consent for a further 330,000 square feet has been achieved and infrastructure works completed for Granta Park Phase II in March 2008. The new multi-occupancy Riverside Scheme of 68,000 square feet completed in January 2009, offering grow-on space for small and medium-sized companies. Location – the Cambridge Sub-region  Granta Park is located in the Cambridge sub-region, 8 miles from the city centre. The proximity of Cambridge University, the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, the Human Genome Project and Addenbrooke’s Hospital has a positive effect on the area, including the development of a vibrant skills pool of people with the experience needed by specialist, high-growth companies, excellent networking opportunities enabling access to expertise, advice, facilities, and business opportunities, more venture capitalist activity than any other region in Europe, and a Cambridge postcode which brings international recognition.Accessibility Granta Park is in a prime location, a 10 minute drive (8 miles) from the centre of Cambridge, next to the A11 and only 5 miles from junction 9 of the M11, providing easy access to Stansted Airport. The master plan provides for ample circulation roads and car parking to serve the buildings and the 2,000 on-site employees, and additions such as a commuter bus service, a car-sharing scheme and a newly agreed cycle path linking with Cambridge city centre have ensured that people have a choice of transport methods with consideration for the environment. Park Facilities Granta Park strives to continually improve the environment in which its customers work, providing a range of facilities to make Granta Park more than just a workplace. Amenities on site include a nursery, gym, restaurant and café. The On-site Team Granta Park has an on-site management team available to provide support to occupiers as required. The Park team manages all aspects of the science park, including developments, asset management, facilities management and health and safety. The team work in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure that the park remains a vibrant, pleasurable place to spend the working day. Responsible Management  Granta Park’s green interior offers a uniquely natural landscape that is quintessentially English. The grounds include the River Granta, chalk grassland meadows, woodlands, a lake and the focal point of a traditional cricket pitch. The meadow is rich with wild flowers and insects in the summer and autumn, essential to visiting birds such as swallows and house martins, especially when they are breeding, as their young are fed on the insects from this natural habitat.The lake is an essential aspect of drainage management on site, with a design which funnels the majority of run-off water through dykes to the lake, where it is stored and can be used for watering. The lake is also home to amphibians, dragonflies, and breeding wildfowl. Fresh water areas such as this are important as such habitats are in decline locally. Over the last ten years thousands of new trees have been planted on the Granta Park site, including many lining the main avenues, in the parking groves and within the existing woodland area which runs along the park’s northern perimeter next to the River Granta. Granta Park’s Construction Managers, MACE, implement an ‘environmentally aware culture’ on all construction sites. This includes monitoring waste, water consumption, recycling and the control of CO2 levels caused by transport to and from the site. All construction waste is sorted and where possible recycled. During the design phase for Riverside a BREEAM (the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) pre-assessment was conducted in order to determine the sustainability performance of the proposed buildings. The pre-assessment process involved the completion of an ‘estimator’, which takes into consideration every aspect of the design, build and management of the buildings. The team was pleased to receive feedback that the development had comfortably gained a ‘Very Good’ rating for the development and is only a few points away from an ‘Excellent’ – the highest score possible. Excellence in Design  Granta Park has a professional atmosphere which motivates staff and impresses clients. By adopting a consistent approach to building design and landscaping, the quality of the working environment is particularly high. Latz and Co, probably the foremost landscape designers in Germany and Eric Parry Architects, the internationally-renowned practice, developed the masterplan for the park with the aim of preserving and enhancing the existing rural landscape and ensuring the site would be easily accessible.Buildings at Granta Park are placed between the natural woodland surround to the site, reinforced by additional planting and parking groves, and the parkland heart. The maturing landscaping managed by the landscape architect is spacious and naturalistic and includes a lake, meadow, twenty acres of mature woodland and a cricket pitch. Each specialist building is unique, being designed and developed for the customer and with the customer’s full involvement from the very start of the project. The favoured method of building procurement is construction management. This is a hands-on approach which ensures tight control and thus maintains the quality of the build. It is also a more flexible process, allowing an earlier start on site and enabling decisions on matters of detail to be made during construction. Where possible adjacent sites are left vacant to accommodate future growth; the proof of the success of this approach is that a number of Grant Park’s customers have been able to expand their operations on the Park without potentially disruptive moves, and at much less cost. TWI’s On-site Expertise Companies moving to Granta Park have easy access to equipment, support and advice from TWI, whose experience over the last 35 years has helped companies to meet technology demands and develop cost-effective products. Assistance ranges from simple advice on the selection of materials and joining technology through to the design and prototyping of new products and business process support. Health Technologies The headquarters of the Health Technologies Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) is at Granta Park within TWI and provides local support to businesses whilst still operating on a national scale and with an international outlook. The Health Technologies sector is currently worth £6bn to the UK and £120bn globally, and is growing at 7-8% a year and even higher in the growth economies such as China and India. The UK benefits from a strong scientific base, an NHS which is restructuring itself to embrace new technologies and products, and an innovative industrial base which addresses both the home and overseas markets. The opportunities are huge but so are the challenges, and the Health Technologies KTN seeks to support all of these communities in creating an environment where needs can be identified and acted upon by the right collection of people and organisations at the right time. Medical Devices The medical device market is growing rapidly due to factors such as the development of new technology, increased patient awareness, the need for an enhanced quality of life, a growing ageing population and the drive to reduce healthcare and social costs. These drivers are stimulating the development of a wide range of sophisticated new products from point-of-care diagnostic instruments to sub-miniature ‘smart’ implants. New devices put increasing strains on materials and assembly technology, particularly with regard to how to design these products so that they operate reliably over their design life, but can be produced at a market cost. Examples of TWI's activities and experience in the medical field include:
Availability The Riverside Development Set within an area of mature woodland alongside the River Granta, with views of the village of Great Abington and its church, the Riverside Development offers flexible office and laboratory space on a multi-occupancy basis with short to medium-term leases. The development includes three buildings, each of three floors set around an open courtyard. The construction work is complete and discussions are underway with a number of interested companies from a variety of sectors. Phase II This 45-acre site which includes 15-acres of landscaping will be able to accommodate up to 330,000 square feet of laboratory and office space, with buildings ranging in size from 20,000 to 200,000 square feet. The Granta Park team will work with companies planning to move on to the park to develop a building that will meet the needs of their business today and their plans for tomorrow. The Somerville Building Ideally positioned at the front of Granta Park and with detailed planning consent; the Somerville Building will provide a new laboratory development of 33,000 square feet which could be ready within 18 months. The building, split asymmetrically by the central core, offers a double-height reception, laboratory and write-up facilities and, meeting/breakout rooms. The Perkin Building The Perkin Building is a stylish office development at the heart of the science park offering superb views across the Granta Park cricket pitch. With detailed planning consent the building could be ready for occupation within 18 months. |
News
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View detailsVacant Property
Granta Park: Riverside Development (2,650-68,000 sq ft)
The Riverside development in Granta Park has been specifically designed to provide flexible office and laboratory accomodation for companies that have either passed the start up stage or want to streamline their business.
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