Pfizer Sandwich site sold to private consortium
pharmafile | August 3, 2012 | News story | Business Services, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Jobs, Pfizer, R&D, Sandwich, cuts
The Sandwich Discovery Park in Kent has found new owners, 18 months after Pfizer decided to pull out from the site.
A private ‘Discovery Park Limited’ consortium has bought the Sandwich site in East Kent – which itself was designated a Discovery Park since Pfizer’s departure.
In January Pfizer said it was in advanced talks with a consortium led by London & Metropolitan, and financed by a major European institutional real estate investor, but these discussions ended in May.
The 297-acre site has been bought by Discovery Park Limited and set up by business developer Trevor Cartner and Chris Musgrave, from investment firm Palmer Capital.
Paul Barber, former managing director of government regeneration company Priority Sites, will be managing director of the new company.
In a statement he told InPharm: “Pfizer has taken a lease of around 250,000 sq. ft. of offices and laboratories, and together with our other tenants we have around 1,000 people employed on site.”
He added that his company has already received several enquiries from companies looking to locate to this site, and said he would progress these ‘with extreme vigour’.
Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, told the BBC: “It was a two-horse race [to buy the site], one horse dropped out, and in the final furlong I think we’ve got some very able, very capable, ambitious new owners of Discovery Park in Sandwich, and that’s great news for Kent.”
Pfizer departure
The site was Pfizer’s main European research centre, but last February the company announced its closure and the loss of thousands of jobs. A total of 2,400 jobs were to be axed from the Kent site, but the firm recently announced that around an extra 650 jobs would be saved.
This means that 1,500 staff have now been made redundant with 900 jobs being retained, and 650 of those will be staying at Sandwich. The remaining staff will be relocated to Pfizer’s other UK sites in Cambridgeshire and Surrey.
Carter said: “This is extremely welcome news and a major move forward for East Kent. We were set an enormous challenge by government to mitigate the withdrawal of Pfizer from its site in Sandwich.
“One of our key objectives was ensuring a bright future ahead for Sandwich – as a high-tech life sciences R&D facility – and the purchase by the Discovery Park Limited consortium builds on the foundations laid in the 18 months since Pfizer announced its decision to withdraw.
“We look forward to working with the new owners of Discovery Park to develop intelligent proposals to further improve the area’s attractiveness and draw in new life-sciences firms.”
Pfizer has already negotiated to lease space to three life science companies: Mylan, York Bioscience and Peakdale. Seven former Pfizer employees have also set up a new business on the site to provide outsourcing services for the pharma industry.
Paul Wookey, chief executive of Locate in Kent, said: “Now that there is certainty over the ownership of Discovery Park it will strengthen the Kent proposition for companies looking to locate to a science park environment.
“The offering of the Discovery Park is a very attractive one to life science companies and we look forward to working with the new owners to really make it a success.”
Ben Adams
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