Trevor Cartner and Chris Musgrave have teamed up with Palmer Capital to buy Viagra-manufacturer Pfizer’s sprawling 297-acre research and development site in Sandwich, Kent.
The pair have formed special purchase vehicle Discovery Park to buy the site. The price was undisclosed but is expected to reflect a value of around £200,000 per acre.
The development site comprises 3m sq ft of commercial space including laboratories, offices and warehouses.
Paul Barber, a former managing director of Priority Sites, the government regeneration company, will become managing director of Discovery Park.
He said: “Pfizer has taken a lease of around 250,000 sq ft and, together with our other tenants, we have around 1,000 people employed on site. We have received several enquiries from companies looking to locate to this site and we will progress these with vigour.”
Pfizer has been seeking to offload the site since May 2011 and earlier this year appointed London & Metropolitan as preferred bidder. It was expected to redevelop the site as a technology and business park, but the deal failed to materialise.
CBRE advised Pfizer; Discovery Park was unrepresented.
