Back
News

Cambridge enjoys tech occupier boom

50-60-Station-Road-CB1-Cambridge-THUMB.jpegAlmost 250,000 sq ft went under offer or completed in Cambridge this month as the city’s tech and life sciences sector continues to grow.

Video game developer Frontier Developments is under offer on 68,000 sq ft at Trinity College’s 26 Cambridge Science Park, let by Bidwells, on a 10-year lease. The company is understood to be paying in excess of £30 per sq ft.

Cybersecurity firm Dark Trace, advised by Juniper Real Estate, has signed for 18,000 sq ft at the Platinum Building in the St John’s Innovation Centre, owned by St John’s College, on a four-year lease, until it can move to the Maurice Wilkes Building, where it is under offer to prelet 18,500 sq ft. Savills advised the college.

The deals follow Amazon opening its first UK non-R&D or call centre office outside London in Brookgate’s CB1 business district.

The company is under offer for 60,000 sq ft at One The Square on a 10-year lease and will pay rent of around £36.50 per sq ft.

It has previously invested in R&D premises in the city – Amazon’s Cambridge Development Centre – which is home to teams focused on Prime Air, Amazon Alexa, and Amazon Devices.

The CB1 office will house Amazon employees, not workers at its subsidiaries or R&D functions. Savills and Bidwells advise on the scheme.

Planning has also been secured for Liberty Property Trust and Countryside’s Biomedical Campus for the global headquarters for life sciences research firm Abcam, which has subsequently confirmed its commitment to prelet 100,000 sq ft at the site.

The purpose-built facility will allow Abcam to combine its three current facilities in Cambridge spanning 57,000 sq ft and expand into one site which will house the group’s UK innovation and manufacturing operations, laboratories, logistics, sales, marketing and corporate functions and will also be the company’s European distribution hub.

Dodson Jones advised Abcam; Savills and Bidwells leased the Biomedical Campus.

The strong occupier demand in the city is feeding investor appetite and speculative schemes.

Aviva committed to forward fund the £87m, 163,000 sq ft grade-A office at 50 and 60 Station Road in CB1– the largest to be developed in Cambridge city centre – and a further 192,000 sq ft as part of its strategy to establish a cluster ownership in the city.

• To send feedback, e-mail shekha.vyas@estatesgazette.com or tweet @ShekhaV or @estatesgazette

Up next…