With construction of its £8.5m town centre business incubator well underway, Warrington Borough Council has launched a hunt for a company to manage the hub.
The authority has hired real estate service provider CBRE to manage the search through The Chest, the North West’s local authority procurement portal. It is expected the applications from experienced managed workspace operators will be reduced to a shortlist of eight, with the successful company being announced in April.
The Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Business Incubator is the first development to start on the site of the Warrington council’s ambitious Stadium Quarter project. Work on the hub started last summer and is on schedule for a June completion, with an opening three months later.
Financed partly by a £1.7m European Regional Development Fund grant and a £6.7m investment from Warrington Borough Council’s capital programme, the state-of-the-art complex will offer a contemporary, high-quality workplace specifically aimed at providing prestigious, accessible accommodation for start-up businesses. When fully operational it will be capable of supporting up to 100 small ventures.
“This is a tremendously exciting project and the council is seeking a dynamic serviced office operator who can match and meet our ambitious expectations for this project,” explained the town’s council leader, Terry O’Neill.
“The Business Incubator will provide a first class base in which new businesses from the engineering and manufacturing sectors can develop and grow,” he added.
“Warrington’s local economy is doing tremendously well, as recognised in the recent Centre for Cities findings which placed Warrington up at the top in most categories including that of start-up businesses.
“This new facility is being built in response to that demand and will provide a first class base in which new businesses can develop and grow.
“Significantly, by the autumn of next year the Stadium Quarter will be home to two top class facilities: the business incubator and the University Technical College, which will train and equip our young people in nuclear and engineering skills.”
Steve Park, managing director of the town’s economic development company Warrington & Co, which is managing the development, said: “This is great news for Warrington and a great start for Stadium Quarter. The business incubator is exactly what start-up businesses in the region need.”
The Stadium Quarter initiative was unveiled by the authority in March, 2013, and hopes to create as many as 4,000 jobs when completed in 2024. It will connect the town’s bus interchange with the Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium and create a new, vibrant mixed-use development comprising educational, business, leisure and housing uses.
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