Carter Jonas partner Jon Silversides, who leads the Oxford office’s commercial team dealing with a wide range of science stock, casts an eye over the life sciences market in the city and asks if there is an adequate range of options for occupiers.
Oxford’s life sciences market has been firmly under the spotlight for the past few years, with a particular focus on its growing demand for suitable R&D and lab space.
As part of the wider Golden Triangle, at times there felt like a risk of the sector being held back by a lack of available stock, with a disparity between occupier demand and suitable space.
This gap is now being addressed with the delivery of pure lab buildings to the Oxford market. That said, I am struck by how little commentary there is on the range of stock being developed, including a lack of discussion around what is still required, and the gaps that still need to be filled to satisfy the evolving occupier requirements.
As one might expect, several considerations have impacted the type of schemes being brought forward. Previously unseen levels of investment and the resultant pressure on land values have made the development of labs at scale and height more economically viable.
This has meant that many of the key Oxford schemes have concentrated activity on delivering wet lab/CL2-compliant opportunities.
These developments have come in a variety of forms including a mix of brand-new space as well as the refurbishment of existing sites. Arc Oxford has been particularly successful with the re-purposing of former office buildings. We have also seen the rebuild of a former retail warehouse on Botley Road, together with purpose-built lab stock at Begbroke and Oxford science parks.
Looking ahead, in Oxford it is likely that the considerations outlined will continue to favour developments of scale and height.
Whilst these schemes will satisfy many requirements, there remains a number of Oxford-headquartered R&D occupiers with requirements for biomanufacturing. Where can they go?
The most obvious beneficiaries over the past few years have been at The Harwell Campus and Milton Park, which have successfully attracted, amongst others, Vaccitech (now Barinthus Bio), Oxford Nanopore, Exscientia and New England Bio Labs.
To the north of the city, Oxford Technology Park secured Native Antigen, together with enjoying success within the battery tech and EV sectors, securing Fortescue WAE (formerly Williams Advanced Engineering) to two of its units. This picture has been repeated in Bicester with companies such as YASA Motors and Evolito.
So what options are there for companies looking for an Oxford biomanufacturing base?
In short, except for the possible re-purposing of the city’s limited industrial stock, there is only one option within Oxford, that being IM Properties’ Nova building to the east of the city (pictured above), sitting between the Science Park and Arc Oxford.
Just completed, the building offers around 44,000 sq ft of mid-tech accommodation and is the first BREEAM Outstanding building, achieving a 100 per cent score. It combines an impressive, aesthetically pleasing, building envelope with flexible volume space that can be scaled up.
As the life science sector continues to thrive, providing suitable spaces such as Nova for biomanufacturing will be crucial for the growth and success of R&D companies in the region.
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