Go-ahead for unique innovation campus in Allschwil

Basel, 26.09.2019

The Bachgraben enterprise zone in Allschwil just outside Basel is expanding rapidly. Excavation work has now begun on the BaseLink site for the GRID innovation and enterprise campus. The impressive building was designed by Basel-based architects Herzog & de Meuron. The developer is the St. Gallen property development company Senn Resources AG. The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area has been confirmed as a strategic partner and anchor tenant. Alongside the building currently under construction for the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the GRID will add to the Basel region's ecosystem for research, education and innovative businesses in the areas of life sciences, biotech, public health and medtech.

The «GRID Campus of Collaboration» will be an architectural landmark at the Bachgraben in Allschwil. Approximately 50,000 m2 of flexible space will be created on five floors with state-of-theart offices and laboratories for teaching, research and development of promising new products. The building will take shape around a turfed and tree-lined inner courtyard the size of a football pitch. This design is intended to facilitate completely new forms of knowledge- and idea-sharing between institutions, companies and people. The building designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron will be constructed by the property development company Senn Resources AG in an investment of approximately CHF 150 million.

The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area is the strategic partner and anchor tenant of the GRID (an acronym for Grand Réseau d’Innovation et de Développement). It will move from its current site in Allschwil in mid-2022 and lease approximately 6,000 m2 of floor space in the first phase of the GRID. By that time, most of the remaining space will have been rented. The GRID is eventually expected to create around 2,000 jobs.

The Bachgraben enterprise zone already offers a dynamic environment for companies working in the fields of life sciences, biotech, public health and medtech, with tenants including innovative institutions and companies such as Actelion and Idorsia. With the development of the GRID and the adjacent Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) building, the BaseLink site is set to reaffirm the Basel region’s continued importance as a leading European ecosystem for innovation. The Bachgraben is well on the way to becoming the crystallization point for all kinds of activities related to health and innovation.

Opening of the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area showroom

The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area showroom that opened today offers an insight into the GRID project. It includes features such as an architectural model of the building by Herzog & de Meuron and current visualizations of the building are displayed on a giant screen. The University of Basel’s Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBE) is also using it to show off its latest developments in the fields of robotics, laser technology and virtual reality. Lastly, a number of display boards and showcases provide useful information about the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area, its funding programs and the start-ups based there.

The showroom is on the ground floor of Gewerbestrasse 12 in Allschwil. Entry is free of charge to the general public but by appointment only. It will also host regular public events. The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area showroom was built with the support of Senn, Herzog & de Meuron, DBE, Economic Development Baselland and BaselArea.swiss. Allschwil Municipal Council, Actelion, CSEM, Swiss TPH, Bürgerspital Basel, the Basel Chamber of Commerce and University Hospital Basel are involved as partners.

Media release (PDF)

Senn Resources AG

Senn is a family business involved in developing, planning and constructing real estate projects since 1965. Its core competence lie in developing land, real estate and property to a high standard with high-quality architecture and a strong focus on customer needs. As a full-service provider, Senn manages its projects with a high degree of process reliability throughout the development process, from land acquisition and property marketing through to turnkey handover. Senn is ISO 9001-certified. Together with its project partners, Senn sustainably optimizes both the tangible and intangible value of real estate / commercial real estate. The company combines the competences of finance (Senn Resources AG), development and sales (Senn Development AG) with construction (Senn Construction AG), and works in small, specialist teams to ensure the highest standard of service from initial design through to occupation. Reference projects such as the Gewerbehaus Noerd in Oerlikon, Zwicky Süd in Dübendorf and the Helsinki Dreispitz in Basel are a testament to this approach.

www.senn.com www.gridbasel.ch

Media contact: Dr. Johannes Eisenhut, Managing Partner, Senn Development AG Tel. +41 71 227 30 10, +41 79 401 49 21, ej@senn.com

About Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area

The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area is one of five sites in Switzerland Innovation’s network of science parks. At its four sites Allschwil, Basel, and Novartis Campus in Basel, the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area offers a total usable space of 7,380 m2. The focus at the main location in Allschwil is on biotechnology and medtech; in Basel, it is on digital health, on the Novartis Campus on digital health and personalized medicine and in Jura on medtech, digital health, health tech and industrial transformation. The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area sees itself as a catalyst for innovation and progress. It connects and supports people with ideas and passion, gives them access to an innovative and cutting-edge infrastructure as well as a broad set of services so that they can focus on inventing, researching and shaping their future. The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area is also home to the support programs BaseLaunch, DayOne and i4Challenge. There are currently about 200 people working at 39 companies and 14 research groups in the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area, which is managed by Basel Area Business & Innovation.

www.switzerland-innovation.com/baselarea

About Basel Area Business & Innovation

Basel Area Business & Innovation is the investment and innovation promotion agency dedicated to helping companies, institutions, and startups find business success in the Basel Area. The organization targets and attracts companies to settle supports founders of innovative ventures, and drives high growth initiatives in order to establish the region as the Swiss business and innovation hub of the future. The non-profit agency focuses on growing the area’s cutting-edge industries life sciences, healthcare, and production technologies and manages the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area, which houses the organization’s accelerator programs. The agency serves the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, and Jura.

www.baselarea.swiss

Contact media relations Martin Jordan

Contact media relations

Martin Jordan

Manager Media and Public Relations

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