Ziopharm Inks Lease for Charlestown Navy Yard
Ziopharm Oncology has signed a lease for 4,872 square feet at the Parris Building (34 First Ave.), within the Charlestown [Mass.] Navy Yard, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, the commercial real estate brokerage that represented building owner Kenney Development. Ziopharm will move within Charlestown its operations center, now at 197 Eighth St.
Kenney was represented by a Jones Lang LaSalle team of managing director Debra Gould, along with assistant vice president Jeremy Roy and associate Patrick Nugent. Peter Trivelas, associate vice president of UGL Equis, negotiated on behalf of Ziopharm.
Ziopharm is one of more than 50 companies that occupy a total 1.9 million square feet of space in the historic Charlestown Navy Yard.
AstraZeneca Acquires DSM Biologics Manufacturing Facility in Canada
AstraZeneca has acquired a biologics manufacturing facility in Montreal, Canada, from DSM Biologics, Dutch-owned parent company Royal DSM said.
The 66,000-square-foot facility will be used to manufacture antibody drug candidates for clinical trials. AstraZeneca plans to commence full-scale production in 2009, and has begun working to re-commission the plant.
DSM announced in December 2005 that it would mothball the Montreal facility as part of a strategy for DSM Biologics focused on the development and out-licensing of a new manufacturing technology platform based on the PER.C6 human cell line, in a joint venture with the Dutch biotechnology company Crucell. DSM and Crucell recently established Percivia, a new company in Cambridge, Mass., for the sole purpose of developing the PER.C6 platform, using a manufacturing facility in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Bangalore, India, Chooses Alexandria to Develop Bioscience Park
Alexandria Real Estate Equities has won a 4.5 billion rupee ($132 million) project to expand a 106-acre bioscience park in Bangalore, India, officials announced June 4.
The Indian state of Karnataka, whose capital is Bangalore, will provide the land where Alexandria will build the second and third phases of the Bangalore Helix. The two new phases will total 750,000 square feet of space and include an animal house, a greenhouse, and an incubation center.
The $2.4 million first phase, consisting of 10,000 square feet, is projected to be completed next month. The space will be occupied by two Bangalore institutions, the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biology and the Center for Human Genetics.
It is being built by India-based National Building Construction Corporation with technical support from Singapore’s JTC Corporation.
Headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., Alexandria is a real estate investment trust that specializes in medical and science laboratories. Bangalore Helix marks Alexandria’s second project outside the US; the first will be Edinburgh BioQuarter, formerly the Center for Biomedical Research, in Scotland. [BioRegionNews, May 14]
Alexandria is now developing nearly 6 million square feet of life science campuses, including Mission Bay in San Francisco and East River Science Park in New York. In Bangalore, Alexandria prevailed over 24 property firms short-listed by Karnataka, said M.N. Vidyashankar, the state’s information technology and biotechnology secretary, at a press conference covered by the Indian news service GG2.net.
Real Estate Brokerage Equis Adds UGL to Its Name
Chicago-based global corporate real estate firm Equis has been renamed UGL Equis, nearly a year after being acquired by Australian-based United Group Limited. UGL acquired Equis in July 2006, creating a global real estate organization that operates in 44 countries and employs 3,300 people.
The organization also includes United PREMAS, Singapore’s leading real estate management and property-services firm with operations in China, India and Thailand; and United Group Services, which provides real estate services in Australia and New Zealand.
UGL Equis will remain exclusively dedicated to representing companies that occupy space. The firm’s clients include Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline.