US pharma giant Eli Lilly is relaunching its search for a London base, more than a year after putting plans on hold.
The Indiana-based company had cited pricing and regulatory pressures in the capital as putting a brake on its ambitions. This was echoed again earlier this year by chief executive Dave Ricks, who told the BBC that he had considered opportunities in the UK over the last decade, but that the planning system has stymied the company’s investment ambitions.
However, the company is understood to have held positive talks with the new government around the terms of recovering costs of research and development. Lilly UK, the firm’s local arm, headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire, has again instructed CBRE to look for space in London.
However, the requirement has more than halved in size to 30,000 sq ft from 70,000 sq ft. A deal would still see Lilly bring early-stage companies into an accelerator environment with the aim to grow their businesses and take their products to market.
Lilly had previously favoured three locations in the capital: Endurance Land’s Regent Quarter, N1; Tribeca, also in N1, which is being brought forward by BlackRock Alternatives’ real estate arm in joint venture with GIC, Reef and British Airways’ New Airways Pension Scheme; and Victoria House, WC1, a retrofit project by Oxford Properties and Pioneer Group.
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly said: “Lilly regularly evaluates investment and business development opportunities around the world. We assess many proposals which do not always progress. We cannot comment on specifics.”
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