Biotech firm eyes next-door deal

Founders of Histogenetics Inc., a 70-employee biotechnology firm in Ossining that serves hospitals and stem cell transplant centers around the world, last year found and bought a vacant building in a Platinum Mile office park for use as the rapidly growing company”™s new headquarters and research and development center. Then they found a building next door better suited to their needs.

Now Histogenetics is about to own two office buildings on Corporate Park Drive in Harrison.

After closing in late December on the $7 million purchase of 104 Corporate Park Drive, the former headquarters of Malcolm Pirnie Inc., owners of Histogenetics this month told Westchester County Industrial Development Agency directors that they plan to acquire the adjacent regional office of Nokia Corp. at 102 Corporate Park Drive. The IDA board agreed to negotiate an agreement with Histogenetics that would exempt the company from paying sales and use taxes on office furnishings and equipment for the second building and a mortgage recording tax estimated at $117,000.

Nokia, the Finnish communications corporation and the world”™s leading manufacturer of mobile phones, this quarter will vacate the approximately 120,000-square-foot building it has occupied since 2006, when it reopened the long-vacant building after a $30 million renovation project. The New York office closing is part of a global consolidation announced last year by Nokia that will shrink its workforce by 7,000 employees by 2013. Approximately 500 jobs will be eliminated in the U.S. The company”™s Harrison office at one time employed about 300 workers.

Founded 13 years ago by Dr. Nezih Cereb and Soo Young Yang Lee, developers of a proprietary molecular tissue-typing process, Histogenetics in 2001 opened for business in Hawthorne in a 1,200-square-foot laboratory. The company moved one year later to 300 Executive Boulevard in Ossining, where its lab space needs quickly grew from 6,000 to 10,000 square feet.

In Ossining, Histogenetics developed a DNA-sequencing technology for mass typing of human leukocyte antigen tissue ”“ used to determine donor compatibility for transplant procedures — that greatly increased demand for its service. By 2006, it occupied all 30,000 square feet at its Ossining location.

Since 2005, the company has opened branches in South Korea, India, Germany, Turkey and Atlanta, Ga. Using sophisticated robotics and bioinformatics tools developed by the company, Histogenetics currently types the tissue of 75 percent of the donors whose blood stem cells have saved the lives of transplant patients, according to the company”™s IDA application.

Cereb, president and co-owner of Histogenetics, said in the IDA application that he and Yang selected 104 Corporate Park Drive as “a good option” to accommodate the company”™s continued expansion. The partners in Cerlee L.L.C. last summer signed a purchase option on the five-story, 118,000-square-foot building as the future Histogenetics headquarters and research and development center. This month they closed on a $5 million mortgage on the property with Citibank N.A.

But seeing the more contemporary Nokia building, Cereb and Yang realized that its infrastructure, which includes high-tech data wiring, was superior to its next-door neighbor”™s.

The partners now plan to make the soon-vacant Nokia building their biotech company”™s headquarters and main laboratory facility. The cost of converting the office space was estimated at $3 million.

Histogenetics will use some space at 104 Corporate Park Drive for storage and will try to lease the remaining offices to other businesses, Cereb told IDA officials.

The company expects to hire an additional 30 employees in the first year after its move to Harrison and employ 150 workers on a $3.5 million payroll after two years, more than doubling its current workforce.

Cereb could not be reached for comment.