Quintiles’ plans for a new corporate headquarters includes a 10-story office tower and an eight-story Westin Hotel, the company said Wednesday.
The complex will be built at Imperial Plaza in Imperial Center Business Park at the intersections of Interstate 40 and Page Road.
After weighing competing bids from North Carolina and the Kansas City area, Quintiles founder and chairman Dennis Gillings decided to keep the company’s headquarters in the Triangle and add 1,000 jobs. The company will receive some $25 million in incentives.
Quintiles, a contract research organization that works with pharmaceutical firms around the world, plans to spend $60 million as part of its expansion efforts.
The office tower will cover 252,000 square feet and house some 1,000 employees.
Quintiles said it currently employs some 1,300 people around the Triangle in four other buildings. One of those will be expanded and another retained even when the new headquarters is opened, the company said.
“Since December, when we first announced intentions to continue growing our presence in the Triangle area, we’ve already hired 225 new employees locally,” said Mike Mortimer, Quintiles’ executive vice president of Human Resources, “Globally we brought on nearly 2,000 new employees in the second quarter alone. Unprecedented growth in the CRO industry is the primary reason behind our decision to expand our local presence.”
Quintiles employs more than 18,000 people in more than 50 countries.
Construction of the building will begin this fall.
The Westin Hotel will have 207 rooms.
Gensler in Charlotte and Cherry Huffman Architects in Raleigh collaborated on the design project. The overall project architectural firm is Little & Associates. Clancy & Theys is the general contractor.
