Arlington’s Hatfield Business Park has secured one of the South East’s largest space requirements and finalised the sale of an adjacent 38-acre site for a major acute hospital for east and north Hertfordshire.
Japanese pharmaceutical group Eisai confirmed today it would build a circa 500,000 sq ft, £75m European headquarters on 14.6 acres of the park by 2008.
The first phase of the complex is expected to include around 100,000 sq ft of offices and 180,000 sq ft for research, manufacturing and distribution.
It will create 500 jobs and will be built next to a new hospital for the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, also announced today.
The Trust has earmarked Arlington’s park for the hospital for some time and has finalised an agreement to buy 38 acres.
It said the hospital would be built by 2013, and would contain the county’s first ever cancer centre.
Hatfield Business Park is already home to the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Post-Graduate Medical School.
Ian White CBE, chairman of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire strategic health authority, said: “The East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust is on schedule, with the SHA’s support and advice, to deliver the outline business case for the new hospital by the end of the year, as agreed with the Department of Health when the Secretary of State for Health approved the initial plans back in July 2004.
“Now with the acquisition of the Trust’s preferred site underway, the future of the new hospital is one step closer.”
President and CEO of Eisai, Mr Haruo Naito CBE, added: “Eisai believes that seamlessly integrating all company functions on a single site improves quality, efficiency and productivity.
“We hope that establishing our new site in the pharmaceutical and bio sector cluster in Hertfordshire will lead to further breakthrough discoveries.”
A source said: “It’s great news for the park and leaves very little if any office space available.”
References: EGi News 24/01/06
