Kingsley Napley advised Harwell Oxford Partners Limited and U and I (Projects) Limited on the property aspects of the sale of their combined 50% stake in the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus to Brookfield Asset Management, which completed on 17 April 2020.
Brookfield becomes the private shareholder partner of the public/private joint venture that manages and develops the site.
The Harwell Campus is a science and research development that is closely linked to the University of Oxford in a partnership for discovery and innovation. It covers approximately 700 acres in South Oxfordshire, with more than 30 universities present on site, as well as in excess of 200 innovation organisations. A five million sq ft development masterplan is in place with the overall aim of transitioning to a world-leading science and innovation campus.
Harwell is also set to be home to a brand new Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC), with construction work ahead of schedule to provide the country’s first bespoke strategic vaccine development and manufacturing capability. As well as working with the Harwell team and contractors to deliver the build rapidly ahead of schedule, VMIC scientists and engineers are working round the clock as part of the BIA CoViD19 Taskforce and alongside Oxford University advising on manufacturing options of the vaccine candidate ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, which has recently opened for trial.
Real Estate partners Paul Harbour and Ian Silverblatt led the Kingsley Napley team.
BCLP (Chris de Pury and Adam Bogdanor) also advised Harwell Oxford Partners, Hogan Lovells (Nicola Evans) acted for U+I and Freshfields (Alex Watt) and Mishcon de Reya (Simon Hart) acted for Brookfield.
Share insightLinkedIn X Facebook Email to a friend Print