Con­struc­tion sources buzzing about a new set of headaches and hur­dles fac­ing As­traZeneca’s be­lea­guered, $650M HQ project

Has As­traZeneca’s gleam­ing, $650 mil­lion HQ project in Cam­bridge, UK hit a new set of de­lays and cost over­runs?

Those are the big ques­tions that the phar­ma gi­ant faces in the wake of a lo­cal re­port in one of the coun­try’s con­struc­tion trade mag­a­zines that As­traZeneca is look­ing to dump Skan­s­ka and bring in a new con­trac­tor to fin­ish off the cir­cu­lar glass palace.

En­vi­sioned by As­traZeneca as an em­blem of its am­bi­tious em­brace of new tech­nolo­gies and a cel­e­bra­tion of open of­fice R&D soon af­ter Pas­cal So­ri­ot took over as CEO in 2012, the phar­ma gi­ant long ago had to scrap the orig­i­nal goal of fin­ish­ing in 2016 — lat­er pushed back to the fall of 2017 and then the spring of next year — at a cost of £330 mil­lion. The new­ly re­vised cost swelled more than 50%, and now the Con­struc­tion En­quir­er is quot­ing lo­cal build­ing sources who say the project re­mains mired in trou­ble­some is­sues.

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