Scale Space today announces the practical completion of our second phase at White City. After opening our doors in July 2020 with 100,000 sq ft, and rapidly filling up, we now have another 60,000 sq ft of space that can be fitted out either as labs or offices.
Space Space’s mission is to unlock the potential of innovation by supporting fast-growing scale-ups. At White City, we are now home to a variety of exciting tech businesses, and the expansion of our building will provide much-needed workspace for more of London’s scale-ups.
As a collaboration between Blenheim Chalcot, the UK’s leading venture builder, and Imperial College London, we are uniquely placed to provide not only a physical location for our members, but also access to know-how, talent and services.
For London’s fast growing life sciences industry, whose growth is currently hampered by a lack of suitable lab space, the second phase is a real boost. As Phil Jackson, Head of International and Cluster Development, MedCity said: “Despite the challenging times, life sciences companies in sectors like Advanced Therapies are going through explosive growth. They are raising significant investment and expanding rapidly. But they are running out of lab space, which in the immediate term is in critically short supply in London.”
Dr Glenn Crocker MBE, Head of Life Sciences, JLL added: “Given the pace of growth and investment, we estimate that the demand for space from life sciences companies in London will increase by between 1.2m and 4m sq ft over the next four to five years. Currently the overall provision of lab space is dispersed across London, and in limited supply. Life sciences companies generally favour being clustered rather than dispersed. So Scale Space is an important development because it provides the environment scale ups seek and will attract others to locate in the White City Innovation District.”
Situated on Imperial College’s White City Campus, near Imperial’s Molecular Sciences Research Hub, The Sir Michael Uren Hub and the Translation and Innovation Hub (I-HUB), Scale Space directly addresses the challenge posed by a shortage of lab space. According to John Anderson, Director of Financial Strategy, at Imperial College London, “London’s growing life science community needs more space dedicated to scaling innovative companies. Imperial has a long-term commitment to ensuring the White City campus will be a place with the infrastructure and capacity to provide for growing life sciences businesses. Scale Space now provides additional, high-quality capacity that is ready to use for both labs and office. Spinouts and later stage scale-ups can now access this flexible space to support their growth ambition at the heart of a supportive ecosystem.”
The building is designed to facilitate the cost-effective fit out of both offices and wet labs. Typical lab requirements, such as for additional power and ventilation, are enabled through the building’s specification. Mark Sanders, Executive Chairman, Scale Space said: “We are ready to support the UK’s highest potential life sciences businesses to achieve their full potential. We have a thorough understanding of their workspace needs – both lab and office – and can support them through the design and development of their space, the way they want it.”
Phil Jackson concluded: “Scale Space, with its proximity to Imperial College world-leading scientists and research facilities, has the right ingredients for high growth life sciences businesses. The new labs and workspace create opportunities for life sciences scale-ups to be part of the thriving, globally-significant innovation cluster at White City.”