Work will get underway next month on a new £4m high-tech incubator hub for Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP). The design and build contract is the second science-based scheme builder Britcon will start in as many months.
Last month the Humberside-based firm commenced work a 30,000 sq ft extension to the Langage Science Park in Plymouth. The £2.6m city council contract involves the construction of two new blocks containing a total of nine workshop and office units from 1,200 to 10,000 sq ft.
The Sheffield scheme — being developed by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) — will add a 32,291 sq ft hub to the city’s well-established manufacturing cluster. Spread across five split-levels with a mix of laboratories, workshops and offices, the new facility will be targeted at start-up and expanding enterprises.
The latest addition to the 100-acre technology park is also part of a plan, announced this week by Sheffield and Rotherham councils, to create the first Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District in the UK. Funded jointly by private and public money the AMP is now an internationally recognised centre for engineering, innovation, research and manufacturing excellence.
Among the park’s world-leading materials and manufacturing technology organisations already on site are the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing (AMRC), Rolls-Royce, Castings Technology International (CTi), TWI Technology Centre (Yorkshire) and the Nuclear AMRC.
Amanda Keeton, of the Homes and Communities Agency, commented: “The contract for this important building was let on a competitive basis and it is great that a local firm has won the work.
“The Technical Centre has become necessary because of the success of the AMP and the need to provide more space for high technology start-up businesses.”
Britcon expects to complete the new hub this September with its first tenants moving in by the end of the year.
“We are delighted to have secured this major contract through our Yorkshire office,” said the builder’s regional manager, Ian Chapman. “Our combined design and build capabilities and sector track record has qualified us, through a very strict tender process, to deliver a one stop solution for the HCA.”
