Developing speculative science buildings for the OxCam Arc
Image: courtesy of Mission Street, illustrating a plan approved last September for 1 million square feet science park in Coldham's Lane Cambridge in a deal involving Mission Street and BGO.
Following our 'Science Cities' forum in Oxford, Future Cities Forum has been interviewing Artem Korolev, CEO of developer Mission Street..
Mission Street has established a market-leading and rapidly growing science and innovation platform.
The current portfolio comprises over 1.5 million sq ft of committed projects in key strategic locations within Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. Its innovative schemes and campuses are being developed speculatively with the first phases being the next available lab space in the respective locations.
It describes its vision as:
'We are inspired by ‘Science, not Science Parks’ – we seek to challenge the status quo of existing science parks by creating modern environments, which are both technically advanced, flexible and design led. We do this via research, engagement with scientists, sector focused partnership organisations and advice from our Advisory Board who provide invaluable insight as to what’s important to our customer base.'
Artem spoke to Future Cities Forum in more detail about the company's aims:
'My view is that in the UK, universities such as Oxford and Cambridge have been academic rather than thinking more commercially, with a little spin out activity here and there, but now there has been a change of perception with the idea that we should retain some value of the companies here, rather than allowing them to go abroad. How does this translate to the real estate piece?
'There is an under supply of stock and our unique selling point at Mission Street is to see the gap of building supply here in the middle of Oxford, rather than out on the science parks. Most stock outside the city is in the middle of nowhere and it is not linked properly to the city. So we thought just build in the city, have city districts with science in them. You can see this in the Netherlands and places like Boston, where there is a trend to move from outside of town into city districts. In the UK, we have big science parks and no place-making.
'We thought why not build near the railway station in Oxford because you already have the infrastructure and don't have to build it. We also decided that you have to build quite big to allow for scale up. We now have a portfolio of a million square feet. We want to keep growing that footage so we can have our own masterplan approach. Before the CB1 development in Cambridge I remember the gateway into the city was under-whelming and now Oxford has that issue. The gateway into the city is not there. We want to build a huge mixed-use district with housing as well as university buildings. The Osney and Oxpens developments can create the best regeneration opportunities in the country I believe.
Artem was keen to stress the importance of developing strong and supporting infrastructure for the UK to aid the development of science development:
'East West Rail is also a huge thing. I find the drive horrendous between Oxford and Cambridge. We have amazing science in the UK but the cities are relatively small and cannot compete with Boston on critical mass. We need to promote joined-up infrastructure and cities. At the moment, they are not linked. The UK has an architectural profession that is world-class and there are some nice buildings here, but the Netherlands for instance understands how to sort out the underlying infrastructure. The problems here in Oxford like sewerage cannot be solved by individual developers. We are building excellent projects but at the moment it is based on creaking infrastructure.
'When we created Inventa and Fabrica as new locations we needed critical mass around them, so that collaborations can pop up and at scale. We wanted to attract companies scaling up out of science parks and also innovation arms of bigger businesses. We are seeing larger lab leases and an example of that is a company called Nucleon Therapeutics which is a genomics company that was in a science park and last year came to us because it needed a larger site at Inventa. The location was important for them because they wanted to be in the city and on public transport and this has helped their recruitment. They have a 3 minute cycle ride to the station now.
'Now data scientists are being attracted to commute from London which they wouldn't have done if they had to work at the science parks. Our leasing is growing and rents are now at a high level which illustrates the value of being in the city. Fabrica is now taking bigger companies and scale ups from Inventa. In Cambridge, most companies get generated into places like Babraham and then zig zag all over the place, so are not concentrated in one place. I think the West End in Oxford can handle all size of companies with start ups in the former Debenhams department store and there is the scope to shift the centre of gravity.'
Future development for Mission Street includes a joint venture with BGO, which was granted planning consent last September for a 23-acre science district in central Cambridge.
The scheme will deliver one million sq ft of space across seven buildings, based on a masterplan by Hawkins Brown. The development includes retail units, restaurants, gyms, playgrounds and events space, anchored by a publicly accessible central square.
Green Street News revealed in 2022 that the partnership had acquired the site on Coldham’s Lane from Anderson Group.
Artem 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.'
Future Cities Forum will be holding its next Cambridge 'Science Cities; discussion event at the Bradfield Centre on the Cambridge Science Park this coming September.
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