Biotech company Chimeris UK has taken 8,000 sq ft at Howard Group’s The Works building at Unity Campus, south Cambridge. The leasing of phase one of the campus, which reached practical completion in early 2020, is now complete.
Howard Group is fitting out Suite 5 as a CL2 wet laboratory space for Chimeris UK, with McManniman appointed to deliver the works, which are scheduled for completion in mid-March. Richard Dickinson at One Nucleus is project managing the works on behalf of Howard Group and the occupier.
Hao Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Chimeris, said: “We are very excited to move into our new home at Unity Campus, where we will embark on the next phase of Chimeris’ growth and transformative technology development. It is thrilling to be part of Unity Campus at this stage and to witness first-hand the continued careful development of the site – we look forward to playing a part in the community and ecosystem Howard Group is fostering here. By locating at Unity Campus, we are also in a great position to access broader collaborations with others in the golden triangle, where we have already experienced, and would like to contribute to, the best life sciences and therapeutics in the UK and beyond.”
Werner Baumker, group director – property, at Howard Group, added: “We are excited to welcome Chimeris to Unity Campus. They join our existing community of 12 like-minded, leading life science and technology companies, all focused on creating innovative solutions to improve both the lives and health of future generations.
“With The Works and phase one now fully let our focus continues to be the provision of additional high-specification, exceptional quality wet laboratory accommodation at Unity Campus to enable both existing and new occupiers to continue to innovate within the south Cambridge biotech cluster. The phase two development at Unity Campus will deliver exactly this and we look forward to being able to welcome yet more occupiers to the Unity Campus community in 2023.”
Bridget Partridge, associate at JLL, joint agent on the campus with Savills, said: “With the lack of fitted lab space in the market Howard Group grasped the opportunity to provide this much needed asset. It’s great to see the final suite let in The Works and to welcome another life science occupier to Unity Campus, adding to the growing ecosystem. Chimeris joins at a really exciting time with the new phase two lab buildings coming out of the ground.
Three new wet laboratory buildings of 32,500 sq ft, 31,000 sq ft and 24,500 sq ft are currently under construction at the campus and are scheduled for completion in Q3, 2023.
