450 new places planned in £10.4m York venture .

A MASSIVE £10.4 million building programme has swung into action at York Science Park, a venture which by next year will double the numbers of high-tech jobs there from 450 to 900.

But funding for a major section of the plan - a new £3.5 million bio-incubator - still hangs in the balance.

The developments, which ensure that many bright fledgling businesses started by graduates are groomed and bloom in York rather than seek accommodation outside the city, were unveiled today by Professor Tony Robards, pro-vice chancellor for external relations at the University of York.

The new buildings, both for sale and for rent, will considerably ease the unrelenting pressure for places in the Innovation Centre which already houses 16 growing high technology organisations.

All but one of the developments has received commercial funding, with builders Harrison Construction, of Malton, moving on to the site with excavators, but results of an application for Government funds to support the three-storey bio-incubator project with an entire floor of laboratories is now being awaited by Science City chiefs.

Already 65 young companies are on the inquiry list for offices at the Innovation Centre, including up to 15 seeking use of laboratories for their products.

The new offices and laboratories will allay fears that the demand could strangle some innovations at birth or force new ventures with quality job potential to leave the city.

Now plans are being formulated for use of the final five open acres next to the development for which planning consent for more buildings could soon be sought.

The Harrison project, funded largely by a joint venture company consisting of the University of York and P & O Developments, entails:

Extending the Innovation Centre by about 10,600 sq ft on two floors, resulting in up to a dozen new flexible-space offices plus six new laboratories by mid-January.

Building on the remaining two acres - given DTI funding and detailed planning consent - a 30,000 sq ft bio-incubator, including one floor out of three for laboratories.

Completing four free-standing buildings on neighbouring land bordering Smith & Nephew, the pioneer firm on the Science Park, for completion on March or April next year. One of these has already been earmarked by Infocom, which will move out of the Innovation Centre and into a new three-storey, 17,500 sq ft rented home.

Another structure will be a terrace of three 4,000 sq ft offices, two of which will be occupied by other firms freeing up space in the Innovation Centre - HCI, or Human Computer Interface and software development company Salamander - and the remaining unit is under offer from a York firm.

Two more buildings, one of 12,000 sq ft another of 15,000 sq ft will border the site and results of negotiations for tenancy agreements should be completed "within weeks".

PICTURE: An artist's impression of the new Innovation Centre