‘Darlington’s golden mile of opportunity’: £8.3m Innovation Central building opens joining sister site – Teesside Live

The £8.3m Innovation Central building has officially opened its doors in Darlington.

The latest addition to Darlington’s business site has 45 serviced offices and five lab spaces, with the building designed to encourage and support the growth of start up and innovative businesses across the town. It joins a growing cluster of activity on Central Park – the 30 hectare site between Haughton Road, Yarm Road, Hundens Lane and the railway line.

Central Park has been described as ‘Darlington’s golden mile of opportunity’ and Innovation Central joins its already established sister site Business Central which is just a few minutes’ walk away. The two sites will share facilities including meeting rooms, a gym and a micro spa.

Central Park is one of the 12 sites that make up the Tees Valley Enterprise Zone. They emphasise on attracting digital and biological industries to the area.

Head of Darlington Council, Jonathan Dulston said: “Growing Darlington’s economy and providing the right conditions to help businesses start up and develop is one of our key priorities as a council.

“Innovation Central provides a supportive environment for any small business – whether looking to take the first step in finding premises or perhaps looking to expand. Business Central has proved a tremendous success in terms of helping SMEs to grow and establish themselves, and with the same ethos behind Innovation Central we’re positive that new tenants can flourish in the same way.

“These are exciting times for the town, with the arrival of the Government economic campus, the revamp of Darlington Station about to begin and the continued success of Central Park and the wider town. Darlington is open for business.”

The availability of five laboratories or ‘clean spaces’ at Innovation Central is aimed at small or medium enterprises as a growing life sciences sector hub. Central Park is aiming to bring high-quality jobs and higher further education opportunities to the people of Darlington.

Councillor Dulston was joined at the formal opening of the building by Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, Darlington MP Peter Gibson and representatives from North East BIC, who operate both sites, and site construction firm Wilmott Dixon. The project has been jointly funded by Darlington Council, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), £3.55million from the Tees Valley Mayor and Combined Authority, and the Government’s Getting Building Fund.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “We know that Darlington is home to innovators and job creators from start-ups to high growth potential businesses, and now Innovation Central will bring yet another boost to the growing cluster of activity on Central Park and our world-leading life sciences sector, helping to take these innovative ideas from concept to reality.

“We invested £3.55million to help make this project happen and unlock even more opportunities for our local businesses and create good-quality, well-paid jobs in the industries of tomorrow. I can’t wait to see first-hand the brilliant businesses, projects and collaborations that will result from this investment.”

As well as the completion of Innovation Central, a complete transformation of Central Park is well underway. Work is ongoing to reform and landscape the whole area in order to create a ‘high-quality environment’ with business-ready plots for future companies and investors.

Peter Gibson, MP for Darlington, said: “There are already over 100 businesses occupying premises on Business Central and it’s great to see Innovation Central complement our wider offer, Darlington’s golden mile of opportunity just keeps getting better. Levelling Up is more than just a slogan, here in Darlington it is being delivered at pace”.

Paul McEldon OBE, chief executive at the BIC, added: “We are delighted to be operating Innovation Central on behalf of Darlington Borough Council, providing a unique opportunity to bring these neighbouring facilities together, to work as one creative and collaborative business community so tenants can easily go between them and make the most of everything we have to offer”.

Nick Corrigan, North East director for Willmott Dixon, said: “We invested more than 45% of our project spend with local supply chain partners based within 20 miles on the site and over 50% of the entire team live in the same area. Since 2013, when we started on the very first of our 11 projects alongside Darlington Council, we have delivered 430 weeks of apprenticeships for local people, and we’re proud to say we supported 14 apprentices over 89 weeks on Innovation Central alone.”