ANN ARBOR ? The University of Michigan said Wednesday it plans to lease 4,300 square feet of lab space to a startup chemical products company that was developed up the road in East Lansing ? making BoroPharm Inc. the first commercial tenant of the 174-acre ex-Pfizer campus that was acquired by the U-M in June 2009.
BoroPharm is commercializing a process to reduce waste in the production of chemical materials called boron intermediates.
University officials said the decision to lease the space to BoroPharm was easy, in part because they had no immediate plans to use the chemistry lab the company is occupying – a facility known as Building 40 under Pfizer?s leadership. Financial terms of the arrangement were not immediately available.
BoroPharm is expected to maintain its business office in Novi and a collaborative technology operation with the MSU BioEconomy Institute at another former Pfizer complex in Holland, U-M said.
It was not immediately clear how many jobs the company plans to add in Ann Arbor, but the university’s press release said “BoroPharm has pledged to invest significantly in equipment and improvements over the coming years.”
The U-M has moved about 300 of its own employees to what is called North Campus Research Complex and recently hired former Pfizer site leader David Canter to lead the site. He starts next Monday.
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