First tenants sign up to Science Park development
THE first tenants to sign up to Plymouth Science Park’s new multi-million-pound development were welcomed to the site yesterday for the formal signing.
The £7 million project, which is a partnership between Plymouth City Council, Plymouth University and Plymouth Science Park, is being built by BAM and is the fifth stage development of the park which has been specifically designed as a centre of excellence for e-commerce, digital creative and life science businesses.
Intelligent Optimisations has offices in London and Plymouth and is expanding their west country arm to the Science Park where they will take over the top floor of One Research Way - the most technologically advanced building in the region.
The company has grown from 5 employees in 2013 to 45 today and they are looking to hire another 20 people between now and the end of the year.
Intelligent Optimisations (IO) is a state-of-the art web based tool to help marketers identify key audiences on a large scale. IO’s True Prospecting solution offers marketers an intelligent model which helps gain new customers based on getting insights into consumers’ habits during real time. The system also continually optimises and converts to give a greater return on investment.
"We are delighted to be moving to the Plymouth Science Park in December. It's an exciting venue which allows us all important room for growth but also provides an environment which matches the aspirations of our business and puts us in the frame with other exciting companies,” says CEO Tom Bowman.
The new building is capable of housing the highest quality, cutting edge technology with the fastest superfast broadband in every office. It was designed by HLM architects and stands in a prominent position right on the gateway to the park with the opening ceremony expected to be in October.
Christian Jenkins, Director of Operations for Plymouth Science Park, said: “We are looking forward to IO joining our community, they are our type of business who share our aspirations to grow and be the best and we are delighted they have chosen to partner with PSP to achieve their goals”
Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “This is just the sort of company that we had hoped would be attracted to the Science Park when we made the investment. The Science Park is growing fast and is shining a light on the many talents of the city. There is still office space available at this site and we really hope to attract other companies of a similar caliber, and the Science Park is also in a fantastic location.”
Professor Simon Payne, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Plymouth University, said: “As a founding partner of Plymouth Science Park, we are thrilled to see Intelligent Optimisations become the first tenants of this exciting new development at One Research Way. Plymouth University has previously worked closely with IO to support the growth of this dynamic high tech company, and in 2014, the GAIN Growth Fund managed by the university supported IO with a grant of £250,000 to help fund a £4million growth plan which created 42 new jobs. It is very rewarding to see that ongoing growth now leading to the company moving into the Science Park to further expand its operations locally, creating more highly skilled jobs for the region.”
Chris Garcia, Chief Executive of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (HotSW LEP) added: “Plymouth Science Park is one of the key projects funded by the Heart of the South West Growth Deal which is part of a package of investment approaching half-a-billion pounds for transformational projects delivering economic benefit for the whole of the HotSW area.
“We are very pleased to welcome Intelligent Optimisations as the first tenants – they are a rapidly expanding company in the technology industry which is a strong sector for growth in the Heart of the South West.”
Plymouth Science Park is one of the leading Science Parks in the UK and houses 90 businesses employing 900 people. Average growth for businesses in their first year on the park is 30% and the park offers an unique mentoring system which gives every business 100 hours of free business support from their Advisory Board.
The site stretches across 25 acres of a leafy woodland site near Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. The park was incorporated in 1995 with two principle stakeholders and founding partners - Plymouth City Council and Plymouth University.
Other Facilities on Plymouth Science Park include:
- Business support workshops.
- Flexible working space.
- A data centre.
- Conferencing facilities, including video conferencing.
- Launch Pad pre-incubation facility.
- Break out areas for formal and informal networking.
- Links with schools, FE and HE institutions in Plymouth.
- The Baylis Conference Centre.
- The Drake Conference facility.
- The Real Food Kitchen Bistro.
