15.05.08 Business School Dean Opens New Centre
Dean of the OU Business School and Professor of Innovation Dynamics James Fleck formally opened the new £8.8m Milton Keynes Business Centre at Linford Wood today.The state of the art Business Centre provides offices, studios and workshops for more than 90 companies and offers around 5,000 square metres (54,000 square feet) of managed workspace.
The Milton Keynes Business Centre has been developed by Capital Enterprise Centres (CEC), which operates a network of Business Centres in London and the South East.
CEC Managing Director Peter Boam said the company had been very impressed by the dynamism of the Milton Keynes economy and had been delighted to obtain an excellent site for the new Business Centre.
He said: We have been given a very warm welcome in Milton Keynes and would like to thank all those who have helped us complete the development of an outstanding new Centre. We are sure that the Centre will now become a real hub for business growth.
We were, of course, particularly pleased that Professor Fleck agreed to open our Centre. The Open University reflects the innovative and outward looking nature of Milton Keynes and is a driver of the high skills economy on which our future prosperity will rest.
More than 40 business and community leaders attended the opening and had the opportunity to see the Centres facilities.
Professor Fleck unveiled a plaque to commemorate the opening and congratulated CEC on developing a striking new Business Centre.
He said: Milton Keynes is a great place to live and work. It has a high skills base which attracts inward investment and is the home of many successful growth businesses.
Often these successful businesses have started as small companies which have been able to seize quickly new opportunities. So its particularly good to see a Centre being opened which provides absolutely the right setting to allow innovative growth businesses of this kind to realise their full potential.
I am sure that the Centre will prove a real success and I am delighted to see that so many local businesses have moved here already.
Located on a site off Foxhunter Drive at Linford Wood the Centre is designed to minimise environmental impacts it has a wood chip fuelled heating system, full recycling facilities and a green travel plan encouraging the use of public transport, car sharing, and walking and cycling to work.
CEC lets space on a simple monthly licence with an all-in-one fee that includes on-site management, maintenance, building insurance, refuse collection, security, water rates and the cleaning of common areas. Flexible easy in easy out terms allow businesses to set up and expand without commitment to long-term agreements.
An on-site Centre Manager provides building management services and supervises administrative support, meeting room management, telecommunications and postal services. In addition to the full range of office, studio and workshop space the Centre also offers a comprehensive Virtual Service for businesses working from home and a full range of business continuity arrangements for larger companies.
For more details on the Milton Keynes Business Centre call Manager Lynn Patey-Smith on 01908 698700 or visit www.capitalspace.co.uk.