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November 13, 2020

Branford biotech moving to Elm City’s Winchester Works building

PHOTOS | Courtesy Sylvester Zawadzki
By Natalie Missakian

Another young biotech company launched by renowned Yale scientist and Arvinas Inc. founder Dr. Craig Crews is moving from Branford to New Haven.

Research-stage drug discovery company Halda Therapeutics will become the first life sciences tenant in the newly renovated Winchester Works building at Science Park, officials announced this week. 

Halda has leased a 9,800-square-foot lab and office space in the former Higher One corporate headquarters building at 115 Munson St in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, according to the building’s developer. 

Halda Chief Financial Officer Scott Phillips said the new space will allow the company to expand its research capabilities and prepare for growth. 

Phillips told New Haven BIZ in the fall of 2019 that the company had searched unsuccessfully for lab space in New Haven before settling on its current space at 23 Business Park Dr. in Branford.

“We are thrilled to be moving back to New Haven, given our close ties with Craig Crews’ lab at Yale University,” Phillips said Wednesday in a statement. “We are excited for our scientists to discover the next generation of precision therapies in this innovative setting.”

Winchester Partners, a joint venture of Twining Properties, L+M Development Partners and the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, acquired the six-story building for $8 million a year ago.

The joint venture said it is “renovating the building for life sciences tenants, overhauling the entrance and lobby and revamping the rooftop amenity space.” 

Built in 2012, the 145,000-square-foot Class A office building is the first stage in a plan for a technology and life sciences campus at the site of the former Winchester Arms gun factory, according to the developers.

Winchester Center, as the campus has been named, could eventually include more than 1,000 apartments, retail space and 500,000 square feet of office and lab space, they said.

The joint venture answers a call from area bioscience leaders, who have bemoaned a shortage of lab space to accommodate high demand from a growing bioscience industry. 

“The City of New Haven is poised to lead the next biotech expansion, and Winchester Works is ready to welcome the companies that will drive future growth,” Jake Pine, director at L+M Partners, said in a statement. “Our campus is open for business today, while other life science developments in New Haven are still years from completion.”

Halda Therapeutics was spun out of Yale in 2018 and closed on a $25 million Series A financing round in February 2019. 

Its backers include Canaan Partners, 6 Dimensions Capital, Wuxi Healthcare Ventures, Elm Street Ventures and Connecticut Innovations, the state’s venture capital arm.

The company says it is “focused on the discovery of novel therapies through the creation of innovative molecules that modify disease-causing pathways.”

JLL, the exclusive leasing agent for the property, brokered the lease. Halda expects to move into the building in early 2021.

Other tenants include Bank Mobile, a company which provides college students with digital checking accounts, and Transact Campus, a cashless campus technology company. They occupy 34,000 and 12,000 square feet, respectively.

Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com

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