Major Cancer Research Firm to bring over 900 jobs to Frederick County!
One of the nation’s cutting edge cancer research firms recently acquired Lot 810 containing 20.45 acres at 9021 Bennett Creek Blvd in the Urbana Office Park recorded as Urbana ORC/MXD and developed by Natelli Communities.
Kite Pharma closed on its purchase on November 16, 2018 for a price of $7,500,000, which puts the transaction within the top five land and commercial real estate sales of Q4 in 2018 for Frederick County, Maryland. Plans are to construct a facility with nearly 280,000 square feet, including office space, manufacturing, plant, and shipping space.
The firm describes itself as “a leader in engineered T cell therapy, transforming cancer treatment with what is potentially the biggest breakthrough since the introduction of combination chemotherapy more than 60 years ago,” and states that it “is dedicated to achieving one of the most ambitious goals of 21st century medicine: curing cancer.”
In August 2017, the Food and Drug Administration approved a cancer treatment for childhood leukemia that uses the patients’ own genetically altered immune cells to fight the disease. The therapy, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, is part of a new wave of treatments that are custom-made to target a patient’s cancer. Referred to as CAR-T, it is part of a process that removes immune cells from a patient’s blood and reprograms them to create an army of cells that are able to recognize and destroy cancer once injected back into a patient’s blood stream. Kite Pharma has been very active in this arena.
Natelli, its agents and Frederick County Government had signed a confidentiality agreement until the company was ready to make the project public. Clearly, the information is now very public with the details of the property transfer becoming part of public record; as well as Kite’s active recruiting for a variety of management and research positions through indeed.com and glassdoor.com as they seek to bring what will likely be 900 jobs to Frederick County.
Kite is a part of a family of medical research firms under GILEAD, which is headquartered in Forest City, California, with several other locations worldwide. The GILEAD vision to is “to advance therapeutics against life-threatening diseases worldwide.”
The development in the office park was kicked off by Natelli Communities in the early 2000’s when the firm sold its first parcel to FANNIE MAE for the construction of a 183,500 square foot building on the 19-acre Lot 701A. Later in 2009 Banner Life Insurance Company, which is now part of Legal & General America, acquired the 9-acre Lot 501 to build at 118,000 square foot facility.
Natelli has been very patient in its plan to bring high quality employment to Urbana.
Stay tuned to the MacRo Report Blog over the coming weeks for more results from Frederick County’s fourth quarter 2018 land and commercial real estate sales data.
Rocky Mackintosh, President, MacRo, Ltd., a Land and Commercial Real Estate firm based in Frederick, Maryland. He has been an active member of the Frederick, Maryland community for over four decades. He has served as chairman of the board of Frederick Memorial Hospital and as a member of the Frederick County Charter Board from 2010 to 2012. He currently serves as chairman of the board of Frederick Mutual Insurance Company. Established in 1843, it is one of the longest enduring businesses in Frederick County