WORK started on the £8m second phase of Liverpool Science Park the day the first part was officially opened.
Business and civic leaders met at Innovation Centre next to the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral to see work get under way on the new 40,000 sq ft building.
Since opening in January, 2006 Liverpool Science Park has become the fastest grow-ing park of it’s type in the UK.
Innovation Centre I has seen 30 young companies move in to the building which enjoys close links with the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores Uni-versity. It also has specialist business support provided by Business Liverpool.
It will include 10,000 sq ft of laboratory space and enable existing businesses housed at LSP to expand, while provid-ing space for start-up firms.
It is estimated that, with the delivery of further phases, the park could support as many as 7,000 local jobs within the next ten years.
It should help the city meet the target of creating 74,000 jobs by 2017 to bring the total number to 300,000 as reported in the Daily Post on Saturday.
Innovation Centre II will offer specialist accommo-dation and services for young businesses with new ideas and intellectual property in the fields of science and technology.
Last night council leader Councillor Warren Bradley said: “The big challenge for Liverpool is to sustain recent growth and create a success-ful, dynamic and prosperous economy with public and private interests at the core of this drive for improvement.
div>
“This new phase for Liverpool Science Park helps to meet that challenge”
Professor Michael Brown, Vice-Chancellor of LJMU and chair of LSP, said: “New ideas that create new economic activity are required to secure the future of Liverpool.”
Neptune Developments will construct the new building, which is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
davidbartlett@dailypost.co.uk
Bookmarks