Willmott Dixon bags £20m Welsh science park job

Willmott Dixon has been awarded a £20m contract to build Wales’ first science park, located in Anglesey.M-SParc (Menai Science Park), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bangor University, aims to drive growth in knowledge based science, with an early focus on low carbon energy, the environment and ICT sectors.Willmott Dixon is teaming up with FaulknerBrown architects and Pwllheli-based Trawscoed Studio, which is creating a 3D visualisation of the first phase. Work starts later this year with completion scheduled for early 2018.Phase one will consist of a 5,000 sq m three-storey building, which will be constructed to BREEAM Excellent standards, and will comprise offices, laboratory and workshop space for up to 700 people. It will form the hub for the entire Parc and become an important regional centre for a range of businesses from SMEs to large corporations.The eight-hectare site will also be sympathetically landscaped within a parkland setting, with the first phase housing start-ups, accelerator and mature projects, as well as an open innovation area.The project came about after Bangor University secured £10.8m of funding from the Welsh Government and £10.2m of European Regional Development funding.The contract win expands Willmott Dixon’s science and technology portfolio. The contractor recently built the world’s leading satellite testing facility at Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire and is about to hand over a new home for the Met office’s supercomputer in Exeter.