Oxfordshire plot sits next door to existing innovation campus
The Crown Estate has bought a 221-acre site in Oxfordshire which it says it will redevelop for science space and housing.
The Harwell East development could include up to 4.5m sq ft of office, laboratory and manufacturing facilities as well as up to 400 homes.
The plot sits next to the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and is estimated to have a gross development value of £4.5bn.
The investment forms part of the Crown Estate’s pledge to invest up to £1.5bn in the tech sector over the next 15 years.
Chief executive Dan Labbad said the UK’s science, innovation and technology sector needed “specialised lab facilities and housing” to expand, which the Harwell East project aims to provide.
The Crown Estate, which part funds the monarchy, will work with Crucible, a new company focused on supporting the delivery of science infrastructure, to secure planning permission for Harwell East.
In May, the Crown Estate said it was buying a 50% share in six Lendlease projects in the UK including the Australian developer’s schemes at Euston station in London and Birmingham’s Smithfield Market.
The joint venture with the Sydney-based firm, which earlier this year sold its UK construction business to private equity which has since renamed it Bovis, could create up to 26,000 new homes and 900,000sq m of offices and laboratories across the six sites.
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