A new lease of life
13 Jan 2015 by Evoluted New Media
When a large scientific company decides to leave a manufacturing or R&D plant, what happens to the state-of-the-art facilities which only these big companies can afford?
When a large scientific company decides to leave a manufacturing or R&D plant, what happens to the state-of-the-art facilities which only these big companies can afford?
Once upon a time, scientific sites which were once bustling centres of research and development or manufacturing activity might have been left empty or simply demolished when they were vacated. But, like a phoenix rising from the flames, many of these sites are being given a new lease of life as a science park, where like-minded companies converge to collaborate and make use of the hi-tech facilities relinquished by the original occupier.
UKSPA, the United Kingdom Science Park Association, say this repurposing is a growing trend and lists many once-threatened facilities which have been transformed into hives of science and technology activity.
“A feature of science park development over many years has been the creation of science parks on the locations of former life science and pharma companies,” says Jim Duvall, Membership Manager at UKSPA. “Successful ventures have included BioPark in Welwyn Garden City (previously owned by Roche Products), BioCity Nottingham (the former research laboratories of the pharmaceutical division of Boots) as well as a number of successful locations forming part of the BEST Network including the Wilton Centre (formerly ICI’s world-class research and technology centre for pharma, plastics and advanced materials businesses) or Hexagon Tower, Manchester (a former ICI research, development and production centre).”
“More recently this trend has continued with the success of Discovery Park located at the former Pfizer site in Sandwich, as well as the plans in place to develop Charnwood BioMedical Campus, Loughborough amongst others,” Duvall adds.
Another recent example is Sanofi’s former manufacturing plant in Dagenham. The state-of-the-art scientific buildings have been purchased by SOG Group, who has rebranded the 17 acre site – consisting of highly specialised research and development and manufacturing buildings – as londoneast-uk.
Interestingly, Sanofi has been keen to ensure the site remained science-focussed and became a science, business, manufacturing and retail park. Sanofi’s Dagenham Site Leader, Jim Moretta said:
“The sale of these buildings to SOG Group will ensure these superb facilities are retained and made available to support other science-related businesses. The retention of these buildings has always been a critical element of our legacy aspirations to see an exciting new business environment created on this site after Sanofi left.
“There has been widespread recognition that Sanofi has taken a really innovative and imaginative approach to the closure of a major site to turn a story of job losses into one of job creation,” he added. “We have worked extremely hard to deliver a positive outcome.”
The initiative has been praised by George Freeman, Parlliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences, who said:
“This is a brilliant example – Sanofi working with SOG – pioneering a new way of rapidly converting a site of 20th century big pharma research into an innovator, a catalyst, an incubator for the small companies of tomorrow. Little companies that couldn’t afford the world-class facilities on their own at this site will be able to access world-class facilities to do their research.”
Part of the success of these science parks is the new owners’ appreciation of the importance of science and their desire to uphold – and advance – the scientific legacy of the site.
“Our attraction to Hexagon Tower was really quite straightforward,” says Chris Mitchell, Associate Director. “Not only did the facility offer a unique historical legacy in terms of science and innovation, but also some of the best research and laboratory facilities in Manchester.”
Hexagon Tower is home to 11 companies, nine of which are science or technology based. They include: chemical companies Fujifilm Imaging Colorants and IGM Resins; chemical testing companies Intertek ASG and Randox Testing; and R&D company Lonza. Many of these businesses have their roots in ICI and Avecia – both former occupants of the distinctively designed tower.
Mitchell says that the current £2m investment over the last seven years has attracted the right type of hi-tech and high-growth tenants – but it doesn’t stop there. LaSalle Investment Management intend to invest a further £1.5m to ensure the site continues to be a high quality, specialist environment for a vibrant and forward thinking community.
It was a similar story when BioCity took over the former BASF site in Nottingham; they were keen to maintain a science focus and repurpose the empty facilities for the benefit of the scientific community. And the company have been incredibly successful; they have grown from one site in Nottingham in 2003, to four across the country including a second in Nottingham, and one each in Cheshire and Scotland. The bioscience incubators are home to start-up scientific companies, and centres of innovation, collaboration and business growth.
Across the four sites, a total of 187 companies are involved in scientific activity, mostly in the life sciences.
“The majority of the sites are biology and chemistry laboratories so it was an obvious use,” says Dr Glenn Crocker, CEO of BioCity.
“All of the companies are science-focussed,” he adds. “There are very few companies onsite who don’t do science. We felt it was important to have lawyers and IP consultants onsite to advise those who do.”
Crocker estimates that 98% of companies actually “do” science, while the remaining 2% are science-related, including project and programme management consultancies, marketing consultancies and lawyers.
When Pfizer left their Discovery Park home in Kent in 2012, new owners Discovery Park Limited acknowledged the potential of the site and were keen to exploit the hi-tech facilities left behind, turning the site into an epicentre of science and technology activity.
“We recognised the potential immediately and were confident that we could make a real difference from the outset,” Chief Executive, Chris Musgrave, says. “Over the last 50 years Pfizer has established a long and rich heritage on site, which we are keen to build upon and our plan is to showcase the extraordinary facilities to the global life science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, science and technology industries. To have such a diverse range of services in one location – from laboratories to incubator space, specialist niche manufacturing and R&D facilities to warehouse units – is a unique proposition.”
The park promotes itself as a hub of global science industries, and of the 100 companies onsite, 25 are in the life sciences or science and technology industry; the remaining 75 are made up of a range of different business and enterprise ventures, IT and communications consultancies and legal firms.
For a site with world-class facilities and “a vision to create a sustainable, mixed-use community centred on its established world-class science and technology offering”, this is perhaps fewer science-focussed companies than expected, but the number of companies and institutions choosing to set up shop or relocate to Discovery Park is increasing.
Among those is Australian fertility group Genea whose IVF technologies branch and stem cell company have opened a European headquarters and facilities to manufacture culture medium. And East Kent College will open a campus to teach their science curriculum, giving staff and students the opportunity to use industry standard laboratories which they otherwise would not have had access to.
Venomtech, a biotech company who provide snake and invertebrate venom for scientific research, relocated to the park from the Kent Enterprise Zone at the University of Kent in May 2014. They were attracted to the site by the state-of-the-art laboratories and other facilities on offer.
“It is a much more vibrant scientific community here and much higher category of laboratory that attracted us,” Steve Trim, Managing Director says. “As all the scientific companies are all in the same place the site does have a real scientific vibe. There is great opportunity for collaboration as although we are unique we also do a lot of 'normal' science and we are already working with four companies on site.”
The potential for collaboration is another attractive quality drawing people towards science parks.
“Collaboration breeds innovation,” says Andrew Scorgie, who works with the BEST Network, the largest network of privately owned science and technology parks, which includes Hexagon Tower. “There is a long-term trend for R&D companies to move away from occupying their own campuses, instead they want to cluster and collaborate (to a certain degree) with other companies.”
AstraZenica is one such example; they are planning to set up camp amidst other scientific enterprises at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus despite closing their own dedicated site in Charnwood in 2010. A new global R&D centre and corporate headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus will bring together the company’s small molecule and biologics R&D activity, and will include high-tech labs and encourage collaboration both within AstraZenica and with the wider Cambridge community.
Turning vacant scientific facilities into bustling science parks is a successful – and growing – venture. The desire to repurpose state-of-the-art facilities and maintain and further the scientific legacy of such sites is high on the agenda of those taking ownership, while the opportunity to collaborate is an attraction for companies looking to set up shop. But achieving this vision is not an easy task, says Jim Duvall.
“To successfully build upon the legacy of science innovation and deliver a community of bioscience businesses is no easy task. It requires three essential ingredients: investment, partnership support and the participation of operators with a proven track record of delivery,” he says.
So far, these essential ingredients are combining well; investment in former scientific facilities looks set to increase, attracting scientific companies – large and small – and giving these sites a new lease of life.
BioCity Nottingham started life as Boots Pharmaceutical, where in 1962 Stewart Adams discovered ibuprofen. It was purchased by BASF, who vacated the site in 2001 making 450 people redundant. Rather than leave the highly equipped laboratory space vacant, it was gifted to Nottingham Trent University, who joined with the University of Nottingham and East Midlands Development Agency to form BioCity in 2003.
In 2012, donation of a pharmaceutical research facility once belonging to MSD gave BioCity a second home in Newhouse, Scotland. This joint venture with the Roslin Institute makes use of the chemistry and biology laboratories onsite. BioHub at Alderley Park in Cheshire sees BioCity work with AstraZenica to provide a collaborative R&D plant for early-stage and growing firms engaged in drug discovery and development. MediCity, also in Nottingham, sees BioCity collaborate with Alliance Boots to focus on medical technology and healthcare.
Case Study: Hexagon Tower
Hexagon Tower was commissioned in 1971 by Imperial Chemical Industries, who had called the site in Blackley home since forming in 1929. Although the site has changed hands since, from AstraZenica to Avecia to LaSalle Investment Management, its origins can be traced back to 1785 when a dye works were established there. The site is named because of the hexagon-shaped windows representing benzene, the basis of synthetic dyes which the site has its roots in.
Many of the firms based at Hexagon Tower have their roots in ICI and Avecia and continue to work in chemical colourings, the industry that spawned the site in the 18th century.
Case Study: Discovery Park
Discovery Park was Pfizer’s R&D plant for 50 years but a global programme to create a more focussed and sustainable R&D machine threatened the state-of-the-art scientific facility with closure and the loss 2,400 jobs. The site was purchased by Discovery Park Limited, and today is home to almost 100 companies including the National Grid, The Research Network and Venomtech, and over 1,600 employees. Pfizer still have a presence onsite, employing 600 staff in Medical/Pharmaceutical Sciences; Safety and Regulatory; Quality Assurance; and Business functions.
Author Kerry Taylor-Smith is web editor at Laboratory News, and has a degree in Natural Sciences.
