After breaking ground in June 2013, downtown New Haven is now the home for Alexion, the biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for rare disorders.
About 200 employees moved into the new headquarters located at 100 College Street on Tuesday, Alexion’s executive director of corporate communications Kim Diamond said.
“Probably the last time a major global company like Alexion pharmaceuticals moved a headquarters into a brand new beautiful building with over a 1000 jobs in downtown New Haven was before either you or I was born,” said Will Ginsberg, the president and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. “This doesn’t happen very often”
A short walk from Alexion’s new building is Blue State Coffee.
“It gets really busy around 8 o’clock in the morning,” manager Kassie Calahan said, “it’s non-stop. It’s a line out the door.”
Now, Calahan said she is hoping for even longer lines with a new corporate headquarters in the neighborhood.
“I imagine we will see a boost for sure,” Calahan said, “we are very centrally located to businesses and the medical campus.”
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As part of its move from Cheshire back to the Elm City, where Alexion was born 24 years ago in New Haven's Science Park, the company announced a 30-day grant program called “Here in New Haven.”
Alexion is partnering with The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to donate $1,000 to thirty local non-profit organizations over the next 30 business days.
“I think that Alexion has the potential to raise the bar in terms of corporate involvement in New Haven and corporate philanthropy in New Haven,” Ginsberg said.
The first recipient of the $1,000 grant from Alexion is Columbus House, which provides shelter and services for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. The rest of the recipients will be announced daily on giveGreater.org’s Facebook page and Twitter feed.
By the end of March, Diamond said a total of a thousand Alexion employees will move into its new headquarters.
“They’re attracting other bio-technical companies to this city and area, and so many young people work in that industry,” Mayor Toni Harp (D) told NBC Connecticut in a sit-down interview last month.
