Manchester Science Park to undergo £60m lab renovation

Bruntwood SciTech has received planning approval for a £60m redevelopment of Manchester Science Park’s Greenheys into lab space.

Once complete, the Greenheys site will add 131,000 sq ft of lab space to the Manchester Science Park, which is home to life science and tech companies.

“With UK Biobank already announced to move to the new hub, we know this will be a big draw for scaling life science businesses who are keen to be located in the same building and access opportunities to work together with both them and the neighbouring researchers at The University of Manchester,” said Bruntwood SciTech property director Peter Crowther.

Greenheys is being designed for science businesses in the diagnostics, genomics, biotech and precision medicine spaces.

UK Biobank, which secured £127.6m from Innovate UK in May, will use the building for its headquarters, biological sample storage, lab space and a robotic freezer containing “up to 20 million biological samples”.

The planning approval means Bruntwood SciTech can continue its ambition of adding an extra one million sq ft to the Manchester Science Park, set to open in 2026.

Crowther said that work on the Science Park facility will begin this summer with construction starting from next year.

Bruntwood SciTech, an equal joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General, is behind many of the country’s science and technology facilities.

Last year the property developer opened a £21m tech hub at Manchester Science Park.

It recently unveiled a new Birmingham innovation cluster and is also in charge of the overhaul taking place in Glasgow at the Met Tower.