Morgan Sindall to build £35m centre of excellence

Construction business Morgan Sindall has been chosen for two multimillion-pound projects in Liverpool, including building a new £35m Northern Centre of Excellence for the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).The work, part of Liverpool City Council’s Paddington Village scheme, was procured through the North West Construction Hub framework and is part of the council’s vision to bolster Liverpool’s life science sector, attracting investment, creating knowledge-intensive jobs and cementing the city region as an international destination of significance for the life science, healthcare and technology industries.The plans for the Paddington Village scheme, a planned £1bn extension to the city’s Knowledge Quarter, involve a 30-acre site off Smithdown Lane developed into three plots called Paddington North, Paddington Central and Paddington South.Morgan Sindall’s successful tender will involve the company carrying out two distinct projects on the central plot.The first phase of work, worth approximately £12m and due to start onsite in the summer of 2017, involves the installation of infrastructure, creation of public realm across the predominantly brownfield site, and the creation of development plots to make them market-ready. The second phase will see Morgan Sindall design and build a £35m Northern Centre of Excellence for the RCP. The RCP is expected to take almost half of the available 140,000 sq ft space and work with the council to find other associated institutions and life science businesses to let the remainder.Pre-construction has already started, with the building due to hand over in late 2019.