THE finishing touches are being applied to the £54m Glass Futures facility.
Construction work on the Global Centre of Excellence in St Helens at the former United Glass site been undertaken last year.
Contractors Bowmer + Kirkland started on site in January 2022, on the 165,000 sq. project.
What is the facility?
The facility has been pre-let to St Helens Borough Council on a 15-year head lease and will be sub-let to Glass Futures which will occupy and manage the building to deliver industry and government-backed research and development projects focused on decarbonising glass production.
It will also provide a platform for the industry to access an experimental scale furnace to test and run trials for implementation at commercial scale on a state-of-the-art line, both collaboratively and individually.
Delivery of the project was conceived and managed by landowner and developer Network Space Developments (NSD), on behalf of a partnership including not-for-profit research organisation Glass Futures; St Helens Borough Council; the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and UKRI (UK Research & Innovation).
Last year the building was presold by NSD to global investor Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust, part of abrdn, to secure forward funding and conclude a viable delivery strategy.
Glass Futures is set to be handed over by the developer and is to be formally unveiled at an opening ceremony after the final touches and internal fit have been carried out.
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