The Welsh Government has acquired an empty office building in Cardiff for £5.8m, an investment it said will support the expansion of the compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales.
The 52,000 sq ft Centre 7 building at Cardiff Gate Business Park, located on the outskirts of the capital, has been empty since Lloyds returned the lease to the landlord in 2018.
The investment in the 1990s built three-storey building has been sold to the Welsh Government by Sir Robert McAlpine Staff Pension & Life Assurance Scheme. Cardiff property advisory firm Fletcher Morgan acted for the pension scheme with Chris Sutton of Sutton Consulting acting for the Welsh Government.
On it rationale for the acquisition of the building the Welsh Government said it forms part of its plans to grow and support the semiconductor sector by offering a hub for new businesses within it, those seeking to scale-up and related inward investment activity.
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The building could potentially come under a new investment zone which is being established with the specific aim of supporting the cluster’s growth around Newport and Cardiff. A physical map for the zone, a 海角视频 Government initiative, has yet to be revealed, but could focus on specific businesses and university related research institutions. The investment zone, which will benefit from tax reliefs, will receive £160m of support aimed at boosting innovation and new job-creating investment.
The region’s compound semiconductor, known as CS Connected, is a growing network of semiconductor industry partners including tech firms such as IQE, SPTS Technologies, Microchip and Newport Wafer Fab - which has been acquired by US firm Vishay Intertechnology from Nexperia in a £144m deal. Vishay is planning a £1bn investment to position the facility as a manufacturing centre of excellence for semiconductors supporting decarbonisation and electrification.
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Vishay is also committed to being an integral part of the cluster whose early stage research capacity is being backed with partners in Swansea and Cardiff universities. It is also being supported by Cardiff Capital Region’s £1.2bn City Deal. The cluster current directly employs around 2,000 with a target of 5,000.
Its industrial chain goes from wafer manufacturing right through to packaged chips, providing a capability in next generation semiconductors which are going to be at the heart of virtually every industrial vertical imaginable, including aerospace, automotive, electric vehicles communications, fibre optics, data centres 5G, healthcare medtech and robotics.