DLA Piper today announces that it has been advising long-standing client Pfizer Limited (“Pfizer”) on the strategically important disposal of their large Research & Development (“R&D”) site, now known as Discovery Park, in Sandwich, Kent.
The deal, which has been two years in preparation, sees Pfizer dispose of a 297 acre site – the largest R&D site in Europe – which originally employed around 2,400 people. Included in the facilities are current and former research buildings, offices, a waste water treatment facility and other amenities. The firm has previously acted for Pfizer on their disposal of a sports and social club, child care facilities and a nature reserve.
The site has been bought by a private consortium known as Discovery Park Limited, a Joint Venture comprised of Palmer Capital, Wynyard and Helios Properties. Pfizer has taken leasebacks of 250,000 square feet of the site, on which we also acted.
Separately, in May DLA Piper acted for Pfizer in respect of the grant of a ten year lease and associated service agreements of the High Temperature Incinerator and Solvent Handling Facility to Augean Treatment Limited.
Paul Jayson, a partner in DLA Piper’s Real Estate Group and lead partner for the transaction said: “We are extremely pleased to have acted for our long-standing client Pfizer on a significant matter to them, and to have played an important role in the history of the facility in Sandwich.”
The DLA Piper team comprised partners Paul Jayson, Teresa Hitchcock, Kate Hodgkiss and Richard Woolich; Legal Director Ben Taylor; associates Vikki McKay, Ben Battell, Matthew Shaw, Mike Pocock and Simon Slade; and solictors Kate Etherden, , Elizabeth Wiseman, and Rachel Scales.
Cobbetts acted for the purchaser.
