Sisk has been due to start once Mace finished shell and core deal next spring
Mace is still set to complete its shell and core work at a life sciences building in King’s Cross that planned tenant Merck has now said it will not occupy.
Mace won the £150m deal in 2023 and is due to finish the scheme next spring as planned, Building understands.
Sisk won the £125m fit out contract last year but Building understands this part of the job is now on hold as a result of Merck’s decision.
The US drug maker, which is known as MSD in Europe, said the UK was uncompetitive and paying too little for medicines.
“Simply put, the UK is not internationally competitive,” the company told the FT.
Sisk had been due to move onto the job once Mace completed its work.
The 10-storey building is being developed by Precis Group. It has been designed by architect AHMM and is being built on a former Access self-storage warehouse on the Euston Road.
Precis has previously said laboratories make up around 40% of the building’s total floorspace with associated office, research and ‘write-up’ space at levels four to nine.
Mace, Sisk and Precis have been contacted for comment.
Simon Rawlinson, head of strategic research and insight at Arcadis, said Merck’s decision “points to a more fundamental shifting in the investment strategies of pharma firms around trade barriers associated with the US”.
The knock-on impact of the move, Rawlinson added, was still being assessed but he admitted: “In the same way that Merck’s original announcement was a vote of confidence in the UK’s life science sector, yesterday’s announcement highlights how competitive the environment and how complex investment decisions have become.”
Earlier this year, AstraZeneca ditched a £450m expansion plan for a vaccine plant in Speke, near Liverpool, which it blamed on the government for reducing the offer of a subsidy for the site.
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