The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Uni building gathering pace
First teaching building at new university set for completion in July
The first teaching building as part of Peterborough’s new university is set to be completed in July.
The building at the new Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) Peterborough in Bishop’s Road has now taken shape. The concrete frame has been completed and all of the internal staircases have been installed.
The university will admit its first students into the building in September, with it scheduled for completion on July 25.
From September, Art and Design, Creative and Digital, Environmental Management, Engineering, Health, Social care, Education and Management and Finance courses will begin in the new £31.3m facility. These thematic areas will be delivered between four faculties; the Faculty of Business, InnovationandEntrepreneurship, the Faculty of Creative and Digital Arts and Sciences, the Faculty of Agriculture, Environment and Sustainability and the Faculty of Health, Education and Social Care.
In terms of funding, £12.3m has been put in from the Mayor’s Gainshare Fund, £12.4m from the combined authority’s Business Board’s Local Growth Fund and £6.5m from Anglia Ruskin. The university has pledged a further £3.8m of funding for any contingencies.
Peterborough City Council has contributed by the provision of £1.87m of land. All of these partners have received shares in the new Peterborough HE Property Company, that will own the building.
A second building, a phase two research building, is scheduled for completion before the end of year as well, December 15.
Photocentric will be the anchor tenants of the building, which they will use to assist in the development of new 3D printed battery technology for vehicles.
Several other established and start-up companies will also use the facility to develop cutting-edge technologies linked to net zero carbon products.
The building has been set a budget of £15.78m, which consists of a £13.78 investment from the combined authority’s Business Board’s Get Building Fund of £13.78m and £2m from its private sector partner, Photocentric Ltd.
Both partners will own the building through Peterborough R&D Property Company Ltd.
Peterborough City Council (PCC) will contribute up to £500,000 of borrowings to part fund increased car parking capacity and the combined authority will provide an £800,000 grant to create a budget to deliver a flat grasscrete car park adjacent to the site. There are also plans for a further two teaching buildings on the site.
The second teaching building, which was given the goahead in October, will house STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics as well as a new landmark cultural asset, The Living Lab. This will be a new open, interactive science lab and education space to creatively engage people (especially young people) in science and technology and will form the heart of the new University Quarter Cultural Hub.
Works on an outline planning application have already started.
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