Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals has signed a new 10-year lease for 327,000 square feet of office space at the Matrix Corporate Center.
The $90-million lease is an extension for the space the world's largest privately held pharmaceutical company in the United States is currently located. This lease keeps some 900 jobs in Danbury.
Mayor Mark Boughton says this is a major hold for the city's employment rolls. He notes that Boehringer is making a tremendous committment at their nearby campus, with continued expansion this summer and fall.
The negotiations for the lease, which ends in December 2022, took about a year and a half.
Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce President Steven Bull said the Matrix is a world class facility and worked hard to keep a world class business here. He called it a testament to the business climate in Danbury that BI has decided to stay in the city.
Boughton says the employees will continue to shop and dine along Mill Plain Road, at the mall and elsewhere in the Greater Danbury area. He called the lease renewal a great economic spinoff for all.
In the first lease in 2002, there was a redesign agreement for the intersection with Old Ridgebury Road and tax breaks, but there was no incentive included in the new lease.
BI is redesigning the space into an open floor plan to employ more people in the same footprint. Boughton called it a more efficient use of the space.
