Tenants imminent as Alderley Glasshouse opens

Bruntwood SciTech’s 150,000 sq ft office complex, which forms part of the firm’s £247m investment in Alderley Park, opens today.

Glasshouse is a £30m project aimed at digital and tech companies. Cheshire & Warrington LEP provided a £3.8m grant towards the redevelopment.

The building was previously in three separate blocks on the AstraZeneca campus, which have now been combined. The refurbished and extended building is situated close to the Pozzoni-designed Alderley Sports Complex and offers a collaborative workspace and a central atrium for coworking, networking and meetings.

It is understood that a number of tenants are lined up to move into the premises in the next few weeks including a recruitment consultancy. Bruntwood SciTech, a joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General formed in October 2018, said in a statement: “It’s the ideal location for digital and tech businesses looking to work closely and collaboratively with some of the UK’s leading life science start-ups and scale-ups.”

Firms already based at Alderley Park include Cancer Research UK, Team Ineos and Royal London.

The 400-acre park, which boasts 1.5m sq ft of office space, was bought by Bruntwood for between £30m and £50m in 2014. The site was previously owned and occupied by AstraZeneca, which was advised on the sale by JLL.

Dr Kath Mackay managing director of Alderley Park, said: “Historically renowned as being home to one of the UK’s pre-eminent life science campuses, the arrival of Glasshouse signifies Alderley Park as a leading destination for innovative tech businesses too.

“The convergence of digital technologies with drug discovery is one of the most radical trends in life science of recent years. This unique approach to locating life science and tech businesses in close proximity will help to drive the collaboration needed to inspire the developments and discoveries of the future.”

The project team was made up of Bridge Architects, Booth King as structural engineer, acoustic consultant BWB, RBA as quantity surveyor, Workspace and GMI Construction as main contractors. BDP was involved in the preliminary stage of the project.

The letting agents are OBI, Colliers International and Hallams.