Edinburgh BioQuarter Health Innovation District: Procurement of a Private Sector Partner

Description

Edinburgh BioQuarter is one of Scotland’s largest health/life sciences innovation locations and a place where new ideas thrive to revolutionise health and wellbeing. It is a renowned destination for first-class clinical delivery, academic expertise and scientific research. It has developed over the past 20 years into one of the UK’s leading life sciences parks. EBQ3 Ltd has been established by City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Enterprise, and the University of Edinburgh (together the Contracting Authorities) with the objective to procure a private sector partner to work with them to invest in and accelerate the development of their vision at BioQuarter. The requirement of the private sector partner includes the delivery not only of new buildings, associated infrastructure and public realm on the available land, but also of health innovation services and community impact services, all in line with the “Primary Purpose” as described in the legal Heads of Terms. The private sector partner will be responsible for raising development funding to deliver the vision for BioQuarter. NHS Lothian is not a Contracting Authority for this procurement and is not involved in the procurement exercise. BioQuarter is a 167-acre site of which 103 acres has been, or is currently anticipated to be, self-developed by the Contracting Authorities and NHS Lothian themselves over the next 25 + years. Such future self-developments conducted by the Contracting Authorities will also be in line with the Primary Purpose. For the avoidance of doubt, the Primary Purpose will not apply to development on land owned by NHS Lothian. It is currently anticipated that the land available as part of this procurement exercise will be in the region of 64-acres of undeveloped land which is owned by Scottish Enterprise (the “PSP land zone”). The anticipated boundary is shown in the Bidders Information Pack. Early development assessments conducted by the Contracting Authorities estimate that there is development capacity in the region of 360,000 square metres gross internal (GIA) area in the PSP land zone. The vision of the Contracting Authorities is to transition BioQuarter into Edinburgh’s Health Innovation District; a new mixed-use urban neighbourhood of Edinburgh centred on a world leading community of health innovators and to grow BioQuarter into a global destination for pioneering health innovation and enterprise. Success for the BioQuarter Vision requires the acceleration of development and sufficient level of commercial health innovation accommodation to ensure BioQuarter is a model for commercial health innovation services that will see existing tenants and companies being retained and growing, and new tenants and companies being attracted. The Contracting Authorities aspire to have in the region of 50% of the GIA of development in the PSP land zone as commercial health innovation accommodation to maximise BioQuarter’s strategic objectives for economic growth and community impact and ensure a high level of accommodation is available for commercial health innovation companies and tenants. The Contracting Authorities understand that this ambition needs to be balanced with commercial viability. Whilst no third-party funding has to date been assured to support the project, the Contracting Authorities are actively pursuing such funding to support the development and bidders will be advised during dialogue. Further details of the opportunity, the proposed contractual arrangements and the procurement process are set out in the supporting documentation available in PCS-T. The Contracting Authorities are hosting an online bidders event on Tuesday 9th November 2021 from 09.00am to 10.00am GMT. Please complete registration on the following link - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/edinburgh-bioquarter-health-innovation-district-joint-venture-bidders-event-tickets-199858711787 Lot 1: Bids for the role of private sector partner will be evaluated against 4 key themes which align with the requirements. Each will be explored in dialogue. A: Property Development & Management Services - develop and manage the PSP land zone in line with the Place Strategy and Sustainability Strategy with sufficient levels of commercial health innovation accommodation to meet the BioQuarter Vision. B: Commercial Health innovation Services - provide commercial health innovation services/model that will see activation and accelerated growth of the ecosystem in line with the Innovation Strategy across the whole BioQuarter site. C: Community Impact Services - provide community impact services by working in partnership with the Contracting Authorities and BioQuarter’s other stakeholders to ensure that BioQuarter plays a significant community impact role in line with the Community Impact Strategy. D: Commercial and Legal - raise development funding and resourcing to deliver A, B & C and enter a sustainable, long-term framework to work in partnership and deliver the ambitions for BioQuarter. Property development and management is anticipated to be limited to the PSP land zones. Tenant retention, attraction, marketing and letting services is anticipated to be included in the scope in relation to BioQuarter NINE and the BioCubes where bidders consider these services will form an integral and valuable part of their proposals for a health innovation ecosystem. FM Services to some common areas out with the PSP land zones is anticipated to be included as a requirement. The Contracting Authorities aspire to have in the region of 50% of the GIA of development in the PSP land zone as commercial health innovation accommodation to maximise BioQuarter’s strategic objectives for economic growth and community impact and ensure a high level of accommodation is available for commercial health innovation companies and tenants. The Contracting Authorities understand that this ambition needs to be balanced with commercial viability. During dialogue, it is anticipated that accommodation proposals may be refined being informed by commercial viability, phasing and income generation solutions from bidders and/or the availability of third party public funding. Bidders will be expected to maximise the delivery of commercial health innovation accommodation and the evaluation of submissions will take into account the proportion of commercial health innovation accommodation proposed against the aspiration for in the region of 50%. The PSP will be responsible for setting the strategy for infrastructure provision to enable their development ambitions. This will include the provision of energy sources, to meet environmental standards set out in the Sustainability Strategy. The Contracting Authorities have explored some potential solutions which have included preliminary discussions with Midlothian Energy Limited. The Contracting Authorities have made no commitments to energy or infrastructure solutions and it is expected that options will be fully explored through dialogue. Whilst no third-party funding has to date been assured to support the project, the Contracting Authorities are actively pursuing such funding to support the development and bidders will be advised during dialogue. This is currently focussed on, but not limited to, grant funding programmes from the Scottish and UK Governments for low carbon energy solutions, general infrastructure works to make the PSP land zones ready for development and opportunities to accelerate the delivery of innovation space. The Contracting Authorities will advise bidders if the position regarding potential third-party public-sector funding changes during the continuance of the procurement exercise. Bidders will be expected to address the provision of funding for its activities in its bid. Please see section V.I.3 for details relating to the procurement documentation being released at this stage. Additional information: Bidders may be excluded from this procurement if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts.(Scotland) Regulations 2015. Bidders who are unsuccessful at this stage will be provided with feedback.Dialogue will continue until the Contracting Authorities are satisfied that they can identify the solution or solutions which are capable of meeting their needs.