Issue - meetings
Innovation Park Medway - Assessment of Options
Meeting: 11/03/2025 - Cabinet (Item 9)
9 Innovation Park Medway Next Steps 
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Minutes:
Background:
The report provided the Cabinet with a summary of the development options work undertaken since delivery at Innovation Park Medway (IPM) was paused in February 2024. This pause had been due to both issues that needed to be addressed and there being limited demand, which had been partly caused by changed working patterns following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report recommended the best long-term opportunities for IPM to ensure the most sustainable future for the sites and to achieve the outcomes envisaged from the sites in response to market changes. For the northern site, a mix of industrial and mid-tech uses was proposed, while the proposed option for the southern site was a care home and retirement units.
It was announced that, subject to legal agreements, a short lease would be granted on 12 acres of land at the northern site to help support a BAE Systems multi million pound upgrade in Medway. The business was planning to invest £220million for a state of the art factory and significant renovation of their existing premises. This was due to create around 300 high quality jobs over the next five years in addition to an existing 1,700 strong existing workforce.
The Exempt Appendices to the report set out a review of development options and details of the lease agreed for the southern site.
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Decision number:
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Decision:
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42/2025 |
The Cabinet approved the recommended option for a mix of industrial and Mid-Tech for the Northern Site (Option 3), as detailed at paragraph 4.7 of the report. |
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43/2025 |
The Cabinet agreed the recommended option(s) for a viable care home and retirement units for the Southern Site with the alternative of Mid-Tech to be retained as a second option, as detailed at paragraph 4.8 of the report. |
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44/2025 |
The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Director of Place, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Strategic Regeneration and the Portfolio Holder for Economic and Social Regeneration and Inward Investment, to commence work to procure a development partner(s) for Innovation Park Medway sites via a public works contract procurement route. |
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The Cabinet noted that two new capital codes would be created to fund the new delivery options for both Northern and Southern sites. New and reduced and refined project costs, including salaries is £2,015,300 (7 years total, 2 years to get a development agreement (DA) in place and 5 years to manage the DA). The funding would be distributed from the existing IPM codes via virements under the Director of Place’s delegated authority. |
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The Cabinet noted that budget allowance had also been made to accommodate works required to make the sites more appealing to a development partner, bringing the remaining works to the next milestone, oversight of the various contract defects periods, as well as ensuring ongoing site security. |
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45/2025 |
The Cabinet agreed to the principle of the removal of the IPM capital codes that were no longer appropriate to the new delivery options from the capital programme, ... view the full minutes text for item 9 |