News and Notes on Trends, New Projects and Construction In the Commercial Real Estate Development Pipeline Around the U.S.
In The Pipeline is a column on significant acquisitions of commercial
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AstraZeneca to Cut U.S. Headquarters, Shift Jobs to MD, MA
A global reorganization of drug maker AstraZeneca’s global research and development operations will eliminate 650 U.S. jobs, with 1,200 positions cut at its U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, DE, and hundreds of others shifted to facilities in Maryland and Massachusetts.
The consolidation of the company’s global R&D footprint over the next two years will cut a total of 1,600 jobs in the U.S., Great Britain and Sweden, about 3% of its global workforce.
With patents expiring for several of its key drugs, AstraZeneca's revenues have dipped in recent years. The company said Monday's moved will "improve pipeline productivity and establish the company as a global leader in biopharmaceutical innovation."
With the exit of the Global Medicines Development group and the relocation of global marketing and U.S. specialty care commercial operation, about 1,200 positions will leave Wilmington.
AstraZeneca will shift U.S.-based global marketing and specialty care functions totaling 300 positions to an R&D site in Gaithersburg, MD, currently the site of MedImmune’s headquarters and the main location for AstraZeneca’s biologics activities. Another 80 positions will move to its center in Waltham, MA.
Another 170 U.S positions will relocate to other AstraZeneca sites in the United States. or overseas, the company said.
The project is anticipated to begin construction in first quarter of 2014 and completed by early 2016.
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Another Trio of Apartment Projects Announced In Denver
The strong flow of investor capital funding a wave of new apartment supply in Denver doesn't appear to be letting up, with three new projects announced on Monday of this week alone.
Developers and financiers announced new apartment projects in Northeast Park Hill and the Cherry Creek submarket of Glendale, CO, even as Behringer Harvard announced it has kicked off construction of a 212-room luxury apartment project in downtown Denver in the Arapahoe Square/Ballpark area.
Even as new construction starts and permits tick up rapidly, a wave of new apartment supply is deluging Denver and other early recovering markets such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Seattle. CoStar economists have predicted these markets will see some of the steepest apartment vacancy jumps in 2013.
Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I is financing the 21 Lawrence project at 21st Street and Lawrence Street on the north side of downtown. Also on Monday, a partnership led by the Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) announced the $6 million acquisition of 9.4 acres at Smith Road and Colorado Boulevard in Northeast Park Hill.
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Overton Moore Sells New Fontana Warehouse For $29.6M
Gardena, CA-based Overton Moore Properties (OMP) has sold the recently completed 419,823-square-foot OMP Fontana Logistics Center in Fontana's Southwest Industrial Park for $29.6 million.
Overton Moore CEO Timur Tecimer said the sale of the property at 10825 Beech Ave. to Santa Fe Springs, CA-based furniture importer and distributor Coaster Co. of America demonstrates the ongoing strength of the Inland Empire industrial market, noting that "low-cost financing is attracting users to buy versus lease throughout Southern California."
Tim Cronin, senior vice president of the Commerce, CA office of Lee & Associates, represented Coaster in the sale. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, including the leasing team of Steve Sprenger, Randy Lockhart, Mark Kegans and Ron Washle that brought the land acquisition to Overton Moore, represented OMP.
Please see CoStar Comps #2699484 for more information on this transaction.
Google to Double Seattle Area Presence By 2015
Google, Inc. is proposing to construct two new buildings totaling 180,000 square feet as it seeks to double its Kirkland campus operations in Seattle to stay competitive with Amazon and Microsoft as all three companies roll out cloud-based Internet products.
The new buildings will provide space for 1,000 additional workers that Google plans to add in the Seattle area to augment the existing workforce of 1,000 employees at the Internet giant's Kirkland campus at 747 6th Street South and the Bothell campus at 651 N. 34th St. in Seattle, Google officials said at a news conference.
The new LEED-certified buildings are scheduled for completion by 2015. Once the expansion is completed, Google's Seattle presence will be its third-largest in the U.S. after its headquarters in Mountain View, CA, which has nearly 42,000 employee, and New York, where Google employs about 3,200.
Both Seattle-based Amazon and Redmond, WA-based Microsoft have grown their operations dramatically as Internet companies have competed to roll out cloud-based products.
St. John Properties Nears Delivery of Spec Projects in Maryland, VA
St. John Properties, Inc. expects to complete construction next month on the first of four speculative office and flex projects in Maryland and Northern Virginia.
In Harford County, MD, St. John next month is set to deliver 6170 Guardian Gateway, a single-story, 25,160-square-foot
office building in Government and Technology Enterprise (The GATE) project in Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG).
Construction of 809 Pinnacle Drive, a 51,240-square-foot flex building at BWI Technology Park II in Anne Arundel County near the BWI Airport is slated for delivery in late spring.
In Northern Virginia, 44190 Waxpool Road and 44200 Waxpool Road, two single-story, 54,120-square-foot R&D/flex buildings are expected to be completed in Ashburn Technology Park near Washington Dulles International Airport in May.
Scheduled for fall completion is 8135 Maple Lawn Blvd., a four-story, 140,000-square-foot office building in Howard County's developed by St. John through a partnership with Greenebaum Enterprises, Inc.