Plan approved for 1m sq ft Cambridge science district

A joint venture between Mission Street and BGO has been granted planning consent for a 23-acre science district in central Cambridge.

The scheme will deliver 1 m sq ft of space across seven buildings, based on a masterplan by Hawkins and Brown. The development includes retail units, restaurants, gyms, playgrounds and events space, anchored by a publicly accessible central square.

Green Street News revealed in 2022 that the partnership had acquired the site on Coldham’s Lane from Anderson Group.

Artem Korolev, chief executive at Mission Street, said: “Since our first consultation with local stakeholders and the Cherry Hinton community, we’ve said that this is about breaking down the barriers prevalent with traditional science parks, creating an open and inviting innovation district, and putting the science on show.”

“This project embodies the principle that it is entirely possible to blend R&D space for world-leading innovators with community amenities that everyone can enjoy.”

Mission Street and BGO have a development pipeline of over 1.5m sq ft of lab and office space in Cambridge, Oxford, and Bristol. Previous projects such as Fabrica and lnventa have delivered a total of 180,000 sq ft of research and development space in central Oxford while The Press in Foxton delivered 100,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space in the Cambridge Southern Biomedical Cluster.