Shire moving to Atwater site

Shire P.L.C. said Tuesday it plans to move from Chesterbrook to Malvern and into a new facility to hold its growing workforce of pharmaceutical employees.

Demonstrating the value of infrastructure, Shire chose a site in the Atwater Corporate Center, which is along Route 29 in East Whiteland Township and is served by a brand new interchange for the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Based in the United Kingdom, Shire has grown from about 100 to nearly 1,500 local employees and contractors, in part because it is squarely in the growing market for drugs that treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Shire had almost $4.3 billion in revenue in 2011.

Shire staff was spread among four buildings in Chesterbrook, Tredyffrin Township. Chief executive officer Angus Russell said earlier this year that in the company would rent wherever it chose to move and this property is owned by an affiliate of Trammel Crow Co.

Shire said Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent for what it hopes will be a 600,000-square foot campus. The statement said a developer has not been chosen and other necessary agreements have not been signed, though it hoped for completion by the end of 2012. The Shire board has not yet voted on the arrangement.

Endo Health Solutions Inc. is also moving to a new facility in the Atwater Business Park from its current headquarters in Chadds Ford. At groundbreaking earlier this year, Endo officials said the turnpike interchange was a factor.

Shire got money from Pennsylvania for locating in Tredyffrin in 2004, pending the addition of jobs, and it met that requirement.

Shire's specialty pharmaceutical division and some corporate functions will be housed in the new facility. Carrie Frey, a senior vice president, said in a statement that Shire also considered sites in New Jersey and Delaware. The Malvern spot met the company criteria, including "geographic accessibility by current and future staff, a flexible footprint that will allow us to meet future growth and changing business requirements, and a single, contiguous layout that facilitates interaction and collaboration by our staff."