Agreement for lease of part of building to be constructed at Manchester Science Park

MSP will appoint a building contractor for the construction of Greenheys. The lease of the UKB Premises will be granted to UKB following practical completion of the construction of Greenheys in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. UKB is to contribute 48% of the overall development costs for the construction of Greenheys (up to a cap), with MSP contributing the remaining 52%. The UKB Premises will house a new automated sample archive store (which has been tendered by UKB) and office space, and has been configured to reflect UKB’s requirements to accommodate large-scale cryostorage including a structural grid, double height ceiling and plant room space as well as power and chilled water provision. The Agreement includes a right to terminate for UKB if the space does not accommodate the archive store and/or the right to make variations to the building contract to accommodate the archive store subject to planning constraints. The remainder of the building will be developed by MSP as a speculative laboratory and office building for letting to other tenants, as referenced above.

Greenheys will be constructed and is to be occupied pursuant to the Agreement and subsequent lease. MSP will use reasonable endeavours to construct and fit out Greenheys by a given date and, as highlighted above, the lease will be entered into after practical completion.

UKB considers that the Agreement does not amount to a public works contract, because its main object is the leasing of property (Greenheys) which is exempted by Regulation 10(1)(a) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as amended.

In any event, even if the Agreement does constitute a public works contract within the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as amended, UKB considers that the award of the Agreement without prior publication of a contract notice is permitted because Regulation 32(2)(b)(iii) applies for the following reasons:

• UKB, a charity, promotes human health by maintaining a database of health and genetic information gathered from approximately 500,000 volunteer participants. The information bank includes a biorepository of physical samples which require storage in suitable conditions, as well as facilities for retrieval and analysis. UKB’s existing biorepository and facilities in Stockport do not offer the required resilience or throughput to meet the projects which UKB wants to support and these facilities are near the end of their reliable lifespan;
• from approximately September 2020 until approximately March 2022 (when Greenheys was identified as the preferred location if a satisfactory agreement could be concluded with MSP), UKB conducted a search for suitable new premises. Although other less satisfactory or “fallback” options were also considered, the premises which UKB sought to identify were ones which were both in close proximity to a major research university (to facilitate collaboration with the academic and research community in health and science), and in the same travel to work area as its existing premises (to assist retention of skilled and specialist staff). UKB considers that it was justified in taking this approach; and
• because of the nature of the funding needed by and available to UKB for the project, it also required premises which it would either own or lease at a peppercorn rent, and which it could be reasonably confident would be available within a timescale consistent with the need to identify new facilities to house its biorepository of physical samples and provide the resilience and throughput to meet UKB’s requirements, without UKB having itself to be responsible for the construction or redevelopment of the premises (for which it lacked the necessary expertise and appetite for risk). Greenheys fulfils this requirement.

The searches and discussions conducted by and on behalf of UKB did not, within the timescale dictated by the need to apply for funding, identify any reasonably satisfactory alternative to Greenheys.