By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó A major tenant playing a key role in the business strategy at the N.C. Research Campus has left.
Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc., known as PPD, has terminated both its short-term lease for temporary office space in Cannon Village and a long-term lease for 40,000 square feet in the long-delayed Medical Office Building, a company spokesperson said.
Wilmington-based PPD had planned to create up to 300 jobs at the Research Campus in the next three years.
“Progress in developing, constructing and recruiting tenants to the North Carolina Research Campus has been much slower than we expected,” Sue Ann Pentecost, PPD corporate communications manager, said in an e-mail. “We understand this is the result of the economic conditions and the global financial crisis.”
While a campus official said PPD will continue its relationship with the $1.5 billion life sciences complex in downtown Kannapolis, Pentecost said PDD is evaluating how the company can participate.
Read more in Thursday’s Post.