The chief executive of Canary Wharf Group hopes a tie-up with lab developer Kadans Science Partner will ensure the Docklands estate plays its part in making the UK a “science superpower” to compete with the likes of Boston, San Francisco and Singapore.
CWG and Kadans have agreed a joint venture to develop what they claim will be Europe’s largest commercial lab, a 22-storey, 750,000 sq ft scheme on CWG’s North Quay site.
“If the UK is going to be a science superpower, London’s going to need to have a critical mass of life sciences space,” Shobi Khan, CWG’s chief executive, told EG. “And we think this building and the North Quay campus can be the start of that… This fits [the government’s] vision of being able to create a great ecosystem that will compete with some of these other world-class cities.”
According to Kadans, London has just 300,000 sq ft of commercial lab space available. “It means that London is losing out and companies are leaving,” said James Sheppard, head of commercial for the UK and Ireland at Kadans. “Once they leave, they very, very rarely come back.”
The joint venture wants the life sciences sector to see Canary Wharf as “a city within the city”, offering not just the workspace but also transport links to both Heathrow and City airports, housing for scientists, researchers and key workers, and leisure activities.
The new development will seek to bring academics, businesses and clinicians together under one roof. The building is expected to house start-ups in an incubator style environment alongside growing SMEs.
“An overarching ambition is creating a new science and innovation district for London,” said Sheppard. “We can provide continuous growth and a home for these companies forever – not just a temporary home until they decide to get on a plane to Boston.”
The joint venture is expecting to break ground late this year or early next year to deliver the KPF-designed building.
Sheppard said UK lab buildings tend to top out at six storeys unless developers are “thinking outside the box and doing something a little bit creative”.
“There are a few innovative elements to the structure and to how we’re going to create this building, which will mean that we can put labs on the 22nd storey,” he added. “From a technical perspective, it is going to be unique. We’re using techniques that we’ve pioneered on low-rise buildings, which lend themselves very nicely to these high-rise elements, twinned with a world-class professional team which is set alongside us, who completely bought into the vision of what we’re trying to achieve from a technical perspective.”
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Photo: Kadans Science Partner
