Western Michigan University Scraps Plans for Pfizer Lab in Kalamazoo

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources, Incorporated (Sugar Land, Texas). It appeared to be a win-win situation when Pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), offered a research facility in downtown Kalamazoo to Western Michigan University (WMU) for just under $4 million. The company would reap enormous goodwill for offering the state-of-art laboratory, known as Building 126, at such a bargain price, considering it had recently invested $35 million to upgrade the site. In turn, WMU would receive a huge boost in research capacity that would have the added benefit of hopefully encouraging new private-sector development in the life sciences. Despite the mutual benefits of the deal, which was supposed to be finalized this month, WMU has decided to take a pass, citing financial reasons.

The WMU Foundation would have made the actual purchase of Building 126 for $3.8 million. The privately funded foundation would have then offered space within the 160,000 square-foot building to the school. Future plans called for leasing some of the space to multiple life science companies in need of advanced research space at a reasonable lease cost.

Pfizer acquired the property when it acquired Pharmacia in 2002. As discussed in the newly released 2007 Pharmaceutical-Biotech Industry Forecast, the company is shedding a number of sites across North America. Originally built by the Upjohn Company in 1964, the site currently houses laboratory, administrative and maintenance areas. Until this year, Pfizer also operated a compound library in the building that was relocated to other sites.

University administrators had determined it would cost up to $2 million annually to run the building, which would have been known as the WMU Downtown Science Center. Apparently, the price ultimately proved too high for the budget as a late December meeting of the WMU Board of Trustees passed on the lease agreement. Pfizer has not revealed any alternative plans of what it will now do with the site.

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