The building of new laboratory and office space for privately-held scientific and technical services company Solvia's began this month. The Swiss company is constructing a five-story building with state-of-the-art labs and office workspaces in Roemergarten.
Speaking to guests invited to watch the laying of the foundation stone, Hansjoerg Walther, ceo of Solvias AG, said: "Roemerpark will enable us to bring the majority of our employees under one roof for the first time. This, together with the functionality of the building, will give us the ideal conditions in which to foster our individual corporate culture. The new laboratory areas will be tailor-made for the analytical services that we provide for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry. It is only a short distance to Basel, where we will retain our chemical development competency centre with 50 employees and where we have already invested heavily in laboratory facilities, including the recent GMP kilo lab."
The project, whose cost is around CHF 70m, including the cost of the land, is being financed by means of real estate leasing deal signed with Credit Suisse, which also allows for a contractually guaranteed land reserve of 6,800 m2 for future growth. The employees will move from Basel to Kaiseraugst in the fall of 2010.
The building was conceived by architects Zwimpfer Partners of Basel and the owner's representatives are Dietziker Partner Baumanagement.