The £7.6m second phase of Plymouth City Council’s Oceansgate innovation hub for marine industries is now fully let after engineering giant Babcock International Group moved in.
The company’s subsidiary Babcock Integrated Technology Ltd has taken a large amount of space and joins other tenants including ESL Group’s Space and Defence Solutions division, Relay Engineering, R and M Electrical Group Ltd and City College Plymouth, which has created a tech hub offering university-level courses in marine and engineering subjects.
The college has transformed 631sq m of industrial space into the epicentre of the South West Institute of Technology teaching area. The £2m facility will provide high-quality and up-to-date training to people already working in the marine and engineering industries and those looking for a career in them.
Phase 2 of Oceansgate is a £7.6m project funded by the Council and a £2.25m grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
It was completed in March 2021 and includes 1,350sq m of light industrial space in three separate buildings and 1,100sq m of office space.
The office building, Nesbitt House, was named in honour of Plymouth-born Kate Nesbitt, who became the first female member of the Royal Navy to be awarded the Military Cross for her service in Afghanistan in 2009, celebrating the site’s defence links and proximity to the Naval Base.
Overall, Oceansgate has transformed disused Ministry of Defence land into a Marine Enterprise Zone. The first phase of Oceansgate was completed in April 2018 and is now home to nine tenants within its office building, Endeavour House, and light industrial units in Endurance Court.
Endurance Court is fully let, with tenants including Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Marine Tech Systems, Lang & Potter Marine and WH Scott & Son Engineers, while Endeavour House hosts The Maritime & Coastguard Agency, Mecal and Relay Engineering, and has a number of office suites available to let.
The next steps for Oceansgate include work on phase 3.1, which will see the development of a 2,400m Marine and Defence Innovation Centre.
Oceansgate sits within Devonport’s South Yard which is a key part of the Plymouth and South Devon Freezone, which will offer specific tax and relief benefits for companies based within it, incentivising employers to invest and create jobs. An outline business case for the freeport will be submitted to the Government for approval in November 2021.
The city was named as a recipient of one of the country’s eight new freeports by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his March 2021 Budget and now stands to benefit from a £100m investment and employment boom, with an estimated 1,000 jobs created in the first two years. Plymouth City Council staged a stakeholder event in June and now is organising a second stakeholder get-together and aims to have its outline plan at Whitehall before the end of November.
Council leader Nick Kelly (Conservative) said: “The marine and maritime industries are vitally important to Plymouth and with Oceansgate we set out to create a dedicated space for these businesses, offering offices and industrial units designed with their needs in mind. It’s fantastic to see Phase 2 now fully let, creating a thriving business hub that encourages collaboration and innovation.”
