Lotus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, has announced that it will add two additional stories to its new headquarters building in Chaoyang District, Beijing, which is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2011.
The facility was originally designed to have nine floors with a gross area of approximately 25,000 sq. meters (269,000 sq. feet) and house the Company's GMP-certified manufacturing facility, 10,000 sq. meters (108,000 sq. feet) of storage space, a R&D center, and Lotus' main administrative offices.
The two new floors will contain between 90 and 120 apartments for employees and will add approximately 9,000 sq. meters (97,000 sq. feet) of space to the building, bringing the total gross area to 34,000 sq. meters (366,000 sq. feet).
The incremental cost for the new construction will be approximately $9 million, which includes design, materials, and labor costs, as well as expenses for approval and public relations. The Company expects the facility to be completed by the end of June 2011, in line with management's previous estimates.
Lotus expects its total investment in the construction of the Beijing facility to be no more than $48 million, of which $36 million had already been paid by the Company by the end of 2010. At the current market price of $3,000-$3,700 per sq. meter (approximately $279-$344 per sq. foot) in Beijing, the total market value of the building is estimated to be $102-$126 million.
Dr Zhongyi Liu, Lotus' Chairman and CEO, stated, "In order to better motivate our staff, the Company decided to add two new stories onto current construction for apartments. These will be given to managers at all levels of the Company to ensure a stable and loyal team, which we expect to benefit the Company financially in the long run. We currently have not taken out any loans for the building, and we expect to finance all of the costs associated with the facility through our internal operations."