One of New Haven’s biggest biopharma success stories won’t be moving into 160,000 square feet of brand new office and lab space at the 101 College St. biosciences tower after all — and has agreed to pay $41.5 million to nix its lease and stay put in Science Park.
In the intervening years, Arvinas has only grown and grown, raising $2 billion in capital, hosting philanthropic pizza-making events, and reaching over 400 employees. According to Arvinas spokesperson Kirsten Owens, roughly 55 percent of those employees work in Connecticut. Another 15 percent work in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, and are periodically in the company’s Connecticut headquarters.
According to the Aug. 15 SEC filing, Arvinas has now terminated its lease agreement with Winstanley, and won’t be moving into 101 College after all.
It’s also agreed to pay Winstanley a “one-time cash termination fee” of $41.5 million.
Owens said that Arvinas worked with Winstanley Enterprises to reach the agreement, including the one-time $41.5 million payment. “While this is of course a large amount up front, there will be savings over the next 10 years,” she said. “Our business will continue as usual.”
And why did Arvinas decide to not move into 101 College after all these years of planning to expand and relocate?
“The decision was prompted by our realization that we do not need the extra space,” Owens continued. “The pandemic encouraged new ways of working and we’ve now embraced a geographically diverse workforce with remote employees based across the country, in addition to our onsite employees, of course. Arvinas’ headquarters will remain at Science Park, which is able to accommodate our current and future space needs. 101 College St. was meant to serve as our second location within New Haven.”
“The City and our development partners have long supported the creation of more high-quality space to support the needs of a growing bioscience sector,” city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli told the Independent on Thursday.
He heralded Arvinas for “advancing breakthrough treatments,” and said its current home at Winchester Works in Science Park is a Arvinas is “a great location as their discoveries advance over time.”
Looking ahead, Piscitelli continued, “we will continue forward-progress at 101 College Street and the soon-to-be-launched Science at Square 10, providing our community with best-in-class innovation clusters citywide.”
Carter Winstanley, who runs the company that built and owns 101 College St., reinforced Arvinas’s public statements that “the pandemic encouraged new ways of working, which included adding remote employees across the country in addition to their on-site employees.”
This resulted in the company needing less space, he said, and so Winstanley Enterprises worked with Arvinas to “meet their evolving real estate requirements.”
He concluded: “We remain very optimistic about the future of 101 College Street.”
Click on the above video to watch a February 2024 conversation with Arvinas Chief Medical Officer Ron Peck onWNHHFM’s“Dateline New Haven.”
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.