City law firm RPC is advising pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on the development of and move to a new purpose-built facility in Cambridge.
RPC is acting as sole adviser on the project, which includes advising AstraZeneca on all acquisition, construction, and planning related issues for a new global research and development (R&D) centre and corporate headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which AstraZeneca intends to invest £330m into.
The deal is being led by Real Estate Head Martin Barrett and Senior Associate Alex Prew, while the construction aspects are being led by fellow Partner Stephen Malley and Senior Associate Peter Lowe.
RPC has acted for long standing client AstraZeneca on the move since March 2013 when it was initially retained to advise on the establishment of the new R&D centre.
The new centre will be home to roughly 2,000 highly-skilled workers by 2016, and will see the global drug maker bring its small molecule and MedImmune biologics research and development arms under one roof. The building will be located at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus on the outskirts of the city.
Martin Barrett said: “This is one of the largest deals in the market at the moment, and is part of the growing trend towards establishing Cambridge as a life sciences hub. This new facility will have state of the art technology and AstraZeneca's move is further recognition that Cambridge is becoming a pre-eminent location for the life sciences industry.”
The deal follows on from a number of high profile matters RPC has acted on, including advising AstraZeneca on property and construction issues related to the move to office space at 2 Kingdom Street at the Paddington Central, the disposal of the Charnwood R&D facility at Loughborough, and the joint venture with Bericote Properties for a distribution park at Severnside.
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