The Met Office is set to sell its Exeter Science Park leasehold property including its supercomputer and an adjacent office building.
A procurement tender for a commercial agent with data centre expertise to manage the disposal of the property within the terms of the Met Office leasehold at the ten year-old development site closed last month.
The terms stipulate that the prospective purchaser must have a “science and/or research basis” and that the buildings which comprise the 13,240 square metre complex cannot be sold separately.
The sale of the complex is motivated by the replacement of the nine year-old Met Office Cray XC40 supercomputer with a Microsoft-provided off-site facility.
The facility is part of a £1.2 billion government-funded joint project with the Met Office that was announced in 2021.
Met Office building at Exeter Science Park. Photo: Exeter Science Park.
A Met Office spokesperson said: “Our buildings on the Exeter Science Park were completed in 2017 to house what was our new supercomputer.
“We are now coming to the point where the next iteration of the supercomputer will be delivered at an off-site Microsoft facility. This means we no longer have a use for the buildings.
“We have therefore decided to dispose of the buildings in line with the government estate strategy, which is to use buildings and land as efficiently as possible and to dispose of any unused assets to save money.”
Exeter Science Park opened in 2015 after a troubled nine year development process.
Last year Exeter City Council had to sink an additional £1.25 million into management company Exeter Science Park Ltd, which it jointly owns with Devon County Council, East Devon District Council and the University of Exeter, after the company was unable to repay debts of £7 million.
