On Wednesday, Novartis announced the expansion of its global research headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. The company will increase the size of its Massachusetts Avenue campus by more than 400,000 square feet. Construction is expected to begin in 2011. Novartis expects to add 300 new jobs and invest $600 million in the project.
Wednesday’s news reflects an expansion of an agreement that MIT and Novartis signed in 2009, by which MIT agreed to a long-term lease of the former Analog Devices building and its adjacent surface parking lot. The expanded agreement arranges for Novartis to lease MIT’s Building N42 and its adjacent surface parking lot. At the end of the lease (which will run either 60 or 70 years), all of the property involved will return to MIT. The size of the combined sites is approximately four acres.
N42 currently houses some of MIT’s Information Services and Technology (IS&T) staff. Affected employees were notified last month that they will be moving from N42 by July 2011. The IS&T Customer Support group, which makes up the majority of the staff in N42, will relocate to E17 and E19. The remainder of the IS&T staff currently in N42 will move to W91 and W92, joining the overwhelming majority of their IS&T colleagues. IS&T leadership is working with the planning and design offices in the Facilities department to optimize the use of space in all of IS&T’s buildings.
“This agreement makes very good sense for MIT,” said MIT Executive Vice President and Treasurer Theresa M. Stone. “Through careful long-term planning, we know that MIT has no immediate need to develop the land in question, and we are thrilled by Novartis’s decision to commit even further to its research headquarters in Cambridge, a vital force in the city’s innovation cluster. This arrangement gives all involved excellent value in the immediate future, while preserving long-term flexibility for MIT.”
Wednesday’s news reflects an expansion of an agreement that MIT and Novartis signed in 2009, by which MIT agreed to a long-term lease of the former Analog Devices building and its adjacent surface parking lot. The expanded agreement arranges for Novartis to lease MIT’s Building N42 and its adjacent surface parking lot. At the end of the lease (which will run either 60 or 70 years), all of the property involved will return to MIT. The size of the combined sites is approximately four acres.
N42 currently houses some of MIT’s Information Services and Technology (IS&T) staff. Affected employees were notified last month that they will be moving from N42 by July 2011. The IS&T Customer Support group, which makes up the majority of the staff in N42, will relocate to E17 and E19. The remainder of the IS&T staff currently in N42 will move to W91 and W92, joining the overwhelming majority of their IS&T colleagues. IS&T leadership is working with the planning and design offices in the Facilities department to optimize the use of space in all of IS&T’s buildings.
“This agreement makes very good sense for MIT,” said MIT Executive Vice President and Treasurer Theresa M. Stone. “Through careful long-term planning, we know that MIT has no immediate need to develop the land in question, and we are thrilled by Novartis’s decision to commit even further to its research headquarters in Cambridge, a vital force in the city’s innovation cluster. This arrangement gives all involved excellent value in the immediate future, while preserving long-term flexibility for MIT.”
