Pfizer Will Demolish Building 118 in Groton

Pfizer Inc. announced today it will demolish the sprawling complex known as Building 118 in Groton.

Groton Mayor Heather Somers said the company broke the news to Groton town and city officials during a conference call at 1 p.m. City Mayor Marian Galbraith, Town Manager Mark Oefinger and Town Planner Barbara Goodrich were also on the call, Somers said.

She said the company had been involved in negotiations with a developer and could not reach agreement. Somers said Pfizer explained the two were at odds over environmental issues, logistics and parking.

Somes did not name the developer but said he had been willing to invest a substantial amount of money in the project and was familiar with developing former military sites and brownfields. She also said the state had commited to investing in the project.

"It's a big loss for the town," she said. "It's hard to accept that we worked really hard and we find someone who we think would be a great partner, but we still fell short and now they're taking it down. That's a bitter pill to swallow."

The loss would mean a tax hit of about $2 million for Groton, which would probably not impact the town until the 2015 fiscal year, Oefinger said. Groton is looking at a proposed $121.6 million budget for the coming fiscal year, which would require a 5.4 percent increase in the tax rate.

The market value of the seven interconnected buildings known as Building 118 was $123,736,000 as of Oct. 1, 2011, Groton Tax Assessor Mary Gardner said in an earlier interview.

For tax purposes, the town takes 70 percent of the value - $86,615,200, according to Gardner – and that is what is taxed. Oefinger said he doubted the value of Building 118 had changed much in the last year. The tax bills that go out in July are based on the value of the property in October.

The tax rate applied to Building 118, which is in the city, for the fiscal year that began July 1, is 24.815 mills, Gardner said. That means Pfizer paid $2,149,000 in taxes on Building 118.

Oefinger said Pfizer's decision is made more painful because someone wanted the building.

"We were extremely disappointed," he said. "To hear that money supposedly wasn't the issue, but to hear that the real issue was something known as 'logistics', you would think that with a little more time logistics could be dealt with."

"It's absolutely a shame that this building is coming down when there is or was a developer that appears to have the wherewithal to do it," he said. "This is a small project for this individual. This individual has $80 million square feet in his portfolio."

He said the developer had already brought in two biomedical entities that might have taken 20 to 25 percent of the building.

More information will follow on Groton Patch.