Specialist developer and operator of science parks Mission Street and US real estate investment manager BGO have received planning consent to put up seven buildings on a 23-acre site in Cherry Hinton that has been unused for decades.
Approval remains subject to Section 106 agreements and other conditions.
The masterplan by architect Hawkins Brown is for a new district to be home to a variety of research and development companies, as a science and technology cluster.
The seven buildings. totalling 1,000,000 sq ft gross internal area will be laid out around a central square and pedestrian precinct.
Mission Street chief executive Artem Korolev said: “Since our first consultation with local stakeholders and the Cherry Hinton community, we’ve said that this is about breaking down the barriers prevalent with traditional science parks, creating an open and inviting innovation district, and putting the science on show. This project embodies the principle that it is entirely possible to blend R&D space for world-leading innovators with community amenities that everyone can enjoy.
“We look forward to engaging further with planning officers, the community and other statutory consultees, as we deliver a globally significant science destination that current and future generations will be proud of.”
Mission Street and BGO’s partnership has a development pipeline of more than 1.5 million square feet of lab and office space in Cambridge, Oxford, and Bristol. Recent projects include Fabrica and Inventa, which total 180,000 square feet in central Oxford, and The Press in Foxton, providing 100,000 square feet of multi-tenanted laboratory and office space in the Cambridge southern biomedical cluster.
