JLL photos
Inside and (below) outside the lab office building at 115 Munson.
A Branford-based biotech company plans to move to New Haven, after signing a lease for a 9,800 square-foot lab and office space in in the former Winchester Arms factory in Science Park.
That move was announced Wednesday afternoon in a press release sent out by Winchester Partners, a joint venture of Twining Properties, L+M Development Partners and the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, which owns the 145,000 square-foot, factory-turned-life sciences building at 115 Munson St.
The company in question is called Halda Therapeutics, which the press release describes as “a biotechnology company focused on the discovery of novel therapies through the creation of innovative molecules that modify disease-causing pathways.” The drug company was founded by Yale prof Craig Crews.
“Halda, a drug discovery company founded from Yale University and funded by top venture capital firms, is the latest company to join the growing life sciences community in New Haven,” the press release reads, “and this lease agreement highlights the unique role the Winchester Works campus will play in the city’s burgeoning biotech sector.”
The release states that Winchester Office LLC purchased the property in late 2019 and “is in the process of preparing the building for life sciences tenants, overhauling the entrance and lobby and revamping the rooftop amenity space.”
It also says that the building is currently occupied by two other tenants: 34,000 square feet by Bank Mobile, “a company which provides college students with digital checking accounts,” and 12,000 square feet by Transact Campus, “a cashless campus technology company”.
The press release states that the so-called Winchester Works buildout is in “the first stage in the Winchester Center master plan, which could eventually include the four remaining buildings and four development sites in Science Park at Yale, all part of New Haven CT’s former Winchester Factory that once employed 25,000 people. Winchester Center could eventually include over 1,000 apartments, retail space and 500,000 square feet of office and lab space.”
Halda plans to relocate to New Haven in the first quarter of 2021, according to the release, which also states that the company recently completed a $25 million Series A financing led by Canaan Partners, 6 Dimensions Capital, Wuxi Healthcare Ventures, Elm Street Ventures and Connecticut Innovations.