Triton secures £9m contracts to deliver research & innovation centre at Production Park – Business Link Magazine

Triton Construction has secured a series of contracts valued at £9 million to deliver the next significant expansion phases at Production Park in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Production Park is a campus for live events, film, and TV where industry, education and innovation come together to create entertainment experiences.

The campus is home to state-of-the-art production studios with clients including Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Little Mix; a higher education institution called Backstage Academy offering degrees for the live events and creative industries; and a community of live events businesses with expertise in stage design, production, and AV rental.

The latest addition, XPLOR, will be the world’s first research and innovation centre for entertainment technology and production.

Last year, Production Park secured a £12 million cultural recovery fund loan from Government to develop the facilities at the campus. The loan supports the delivery of XPLOR, as well as the expansion of its existing studio spaces and creates managed workspace to nurture up and coming talent in the region.

Additional funding to support the XPLOR project came to Backstage Academy from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Following competitive Tender, locally based Triton Construction was awarded the full design and build contracts to deliver a 42-metre x 32.8 metre x 20 metre high, performance research studio with a single storey ‘lean to’ of 5.5 metre x 34.5 metre to provide a total area of 16,871 sq ft with high level rigging gantry.

Triton is also building a 15,064 sq ft two-storey building for offices, manufacturing, testing for XPLOR projects and teaching facility. Full infrastructure works and landscaping is also part of the remit.

The works form a part of an ongoing brief for Triton which completed the delivery of a 5-unit employment industrial and office facility and is currently converting and updating a recently purchased adjacent industrial unit to provide further manufacturing workspace, storage, and small business space at Production Park.

Paul Clarkson, Managing Director at Triton Construction, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Production Park to deliver these further significant contracts.  This is a hugely ambitious and successful campus that we are excited to be involved with.

“The XPLOR project is very specialist due to the scale of space and heights required, technical fit out and sound requirements. We are working closely with the Production Park team as well as acoustics specialists to combine technologies in a new way to deliver sound proofing against the loudest outputs due to the built-up location.”

Jim Farmery, development director for XPLOR, said: “It’s great to have such a capable delivery partner on board in Triton Construction. We’re all really excited to see the building work underway and we can’t wait to see the XPLOR building take shape over the next few months.”

Triton has now started construction on site and expects to complete the expansion by the 3rd quarter of 2022.