Plymouth’s new Intercity Place medical campus scheduled to open in 2023

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Work is well on track to create a new medical campus as part of the redevelopment of Plymouth’s railway station with the facility expected to be open by 2023.

The University of Plymouth said it is making “significant progress” on the project to create an “outstanding” facility for its Faculty of Health in what was the ramshackle Intercity House office block at the station, off Saltash Road in the city centre.

In recent months the university and contractor Kier have been carrying out enabling works on the 11-storey building, which will now be called Intercity Place.

This has included removing fixtures and fittings which will be replaced with the equipment required to train nurses, midwives, paramedics, physiotherapists, and other allied health professionals. Refurbishment and reuse of the existing building will reduce the carbon impact and is highly sustainable.

Revised plans for Intercity Place have been approved by Plymouth City Council, which allows for façade amendments that will support a sustainable heating, cooling and ventilation strategy.

The project is on schedule to be finished well in advance of the 2023/2024 academic year, meaning that new students arriving in September 2021 will be able to train in its facilities during their course of their studies.

The university is also continuing to work with Plymouth City Council, Network Rail and Great Western Railway as the building forms a key element of the wider regeneration planned for what will become Brunel Plaza.

The idea is for the shabby area to be gentrified as part of an estimated £80m project to revamp the station, and create a new hotel and multi-storey car park near to the new medical campus.

A number of significant changes are already well underway with work on the concourse and gateway ongoing. A driver simulator building has already been moved.

In July 2021 a consultation exercise was begun around designs for the new 460-space multi-storey car park which – subject to planning permission – could be operational by mid-2024.

Professor Judith Petts, vice-chancellor of the University of Plymouth, said: “This is an important development for both the university and the city, and it is exciting to see it really taking shape.

“The university is already the largest provider of healthcare training in the South West, and this will dramatically enhance the education and experience we can offer students across the Faculty of Health.

“It will ensure we can continue to meet the demand for frontline hospital and healthcare workers in Plymouth, the wider South West and beyond.

“It will also create a real focal point in this key part of our community at a time when regeneration and rejuvenation has never been more important.”

The Intercity Place project is the latest on which Kier has worked with the university, having previously constructed the £17m Derriford Research Facility which was opened by Princess Anne in May 2018. Within Plymouth, the company is also currently developing the UK’s first marine Enterprise Zone at Oceansgate, and working with Building Plymouth to provide a range of job, training and career opportunities for residents of the city.

Doug Lloyd, operations director of Kier Regional Building Western & Wales, said: “We are delighted to be working with the University of Plymouth again, this time transforming a building that is a focal point of the city. Over the duration of the project, we will collaborate with all parties involved as it is central to the wider Brunel Plaza master plan. We have an unrivalled legacy in Plymouth, delivering for communities in the city and across Devon and Cornwall since the 1930s. We will work with our skilled and local supply chain partners to deliver this important new facility for the university.”