Rapidly growing Swiss biopharmaceuticals group Lonza has bought the former British Gas site at Thames Valley Park in Reading in the South East to develop a hub upwards of 400,000 square feet that will include offices, laboratory space and a manufacturing hub, CoStar News can reveal.
The group, advised by Cushman & Wakefield, launched a feasibility study for an office, laboratory and factory relocation early last year. It is based in a 210,000-square-foot multiproduct manufacturing and development facility at 228 Bath Road in Slough and uses the site to produce ingredients for start-up biotech and large pharmaceutical companies. It has 1,300 employees working at the site with the team growing rapidly.
Earlier this year CoStar News revealed Lonza was looking at two Reading options, Mapletree's 1.4 million square foot Green Park campus fronting the M4 and 12 acres at the former BG Group site at Thames Valley Park, the 80-acre campus that is also home to Oracle, Microsoft and ING Direct.
Around 800 jobs were transferred from British Gas’s former corporate head office at Thames Valley Park to London in 2015 after the company's takeover by Shell.
The owner of the three buildings bought is a private Middle Eastern investor advised by asset manager Berkeley Estate Asset Management, which took back the buildings via a lease surrender from Shell. The 64,000-square-foot Mistral building at the site is not included in the sale, CoStar News understands.
All parties declined to comment.