Pharma giant switches from Skanska to Mace as completion is put back to 2020

AstraZeneca

Further delays to the construction of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca鈥檚 new headquarters in Cambridge could push the building鈥檚 final price tag to more than 拢500m.

And following a review of the project, Skanska has been replaced by Mace as construction manager for the scientific fit-out and commissioning phase of the project.

Skanska has worked on site since the summer of 2015 and will hand over responsibility to Mace in November.

Completion is now expected in the first half of 2020, nearly three years behind schedule.

AstraZeneca, which develops treatments for heart disease, cancer and respiratory illnesses, had expected to move into the Herzog & de Meuron-designed building (pictured) located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in the latter part of last year.

The original cost of the development, which will include the pharmaceutical firm鈥檚 global R&D hub, was originally 拢300m, although this had subsequently been revised upwards to 拢500m.

AstraZeneca said it had decided to make the switch to Mace following a review of the project and added: 鈥淲e recognise the valuable contribution Skanska has made to the project and thank them for their ongoing support.

鈥淲ith over four million hours worked on site since breaking ground in August 2015, Skanska has steered the project through the delivery of the base building infrastructure and completion of the Energy and Data Centre.鈥

鈥淔ollowing a transition period, we will be able to communicate an update as to when we can commence occupation of the facility. As of today, this points to the first half of 2020.鈥