UBS and Reef have joined forces to create a £900m life sciences cluster in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
The hub, which the developers hope will be one of the largest in Europe, will be built on 33 acres of land acquired from GSK.
UBS Asset Management, other unnamed investors and Reef Group, as development partner, want to build an estimated 1.4m sq ft of laboratory and office space next to GSK’s global research and development facility.
The Hertfordshire site also hosts the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, a biotechnology hub, and the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.
GSK, which is being advised by Cushman & Wakefield, believes the site has the potential to become Britain’s second-largest sector cluster, after Cambridge, for specialist commercial life sciences, excluding academia and the NHS.
The investment is set to be marked today by stakeholders, with the government and Dame Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of GSK, in attendance.
Construction of the new campus will begin next year and, subject to planning permission, parts of it will open for business in 2025. Talks with prospective tenants have begun.
UBS is forecasting a £1.5bn valuation on the site once it is developed.
