The biotechnology industry is booming - and that in Munich too.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis will soon move into one of the finest buildings in the heart of the city.
Munich - The Alte Akademie - located in the center of the pedestrian zone between Stachus and Marienplatz - is getting new users: From 2024, 500 employees are to work here in the German administration of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.
The Basel group is moving half of the headquarters of its German subsidiary from Nuremberg to Munich.
The listed complex, which belongs to the Signa Group of the Austrian real estate investor René Benko, is currently still being converted. According to Signa, Novartis will “lease” a total of 9,350 square meters of office space here on a long-term basis. According to Novartis Germany boss Heinrich Moisa, the decisive factor in choosing Munich as a location. The biotechnology network that has emerged in the metropolitan area of the state capital in recent years. For Moisa this cluster is “leading in Europe”. No wonder: In addition to hundreds of large and small companies, this also includes the two elite universities, the Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University as well as several Max Planck Institutes - and two innovation and start-up centers.The focus is on so-called red biotechnology - i.e. in the pharmaceutical-medical field. That suits Novartis.
Novartis moves into the Alte Akademie in Munich - the building belonged to the city until 2013
The company's move to Munich will begin at the beginning of next year with the opening of a temporary office.
The plan is to move into the Alte Akademie in 2024.
The building, originally a Jesuit college, built by Duke Albrecht I from 1574 to 1576, belonged to the Free State until 2013.
Then "Kaufhaus-König" René Benko bought it for 240 million euros and began the renovation.
In addition to offices, apartments (on 3550 square meters) are also to be built here, as well as areas for retail (7700 square meters) and restaurants (1400 square meters).
According to Signa, with the conclusion of the rental agreement with Novartis, “all office space is already taken long before the traditional property is completed”.
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According to Siga Real Estate, components of the former Hettlage department store are currently being dismantled and special civil engineering work is being carried out to create new basement levels for the complex.
In the next step, the shell work should then start.
From the outside, not much should change: the facades of all parts of the building will be preserved and will be renovated in accordance with listed buildings.
Incidentally, Novartis employs around 7,000 people in Germany (110,000 worldwide) at ten locations, including Sandoz / Hexal in Holzkirchen and the plants in Wehr near Basel, Barleben and Osterweddingen in Saxony-Anhalt and Rudolstadt in Thuringia.
The company is also intertwined with corona vaccine manufacturer Biontech.
According to Moisa, Novartis Germany boss, Bavaria is a fantastic location for pharmaceutical and technology companies.
He expressly does not want the partial move to Munich to be understood as a rejection of Nuremberg.
He expressly praises the existing partnership with the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen.
But the Novartis building in Nuremberg, according to Moisa, simply no longer meets today's requirements ... So now it's Munich's turn.
(Wolfgang de Ponte)