The Business Journals have learned that informal meetings have taken place between municipal officials and representatives of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on the company’s planned $470 million expansion of its Pearl River campus in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County. Pfizer has been in Rockland since acquiring Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 2009 along with the buildings and acreage owned by Wyeth. In 2015, Pfizer sold 207 acres and 25 buildings at 401 N. Middletown Road in Pearl River that it wasn’t going to continue using to Industrial Realty Group LLC (IRG), which now operates the property as Hudson Valley iCampus. Pfizer continues to own 33 acres and occupies about 850,000 square feet of building space on its Pearl River campus.

Jerica Pitts, Pfizer’s senior director of global media relations for Pfizer, told the Business Journals, “Pfizer has new plans for a $470 million transformational investment for its Vaccine Research and Development campus in Pearl River. Over the next three years, subject to approvals from officials and other entities as required, Pfizer plans to expand and modernize our campus with a new 260,000-square-foot lab building for 370 colleagues and amenities such as a modern café, fitness center, parking garage and functional outdoor plaza. The rejuvenated campus will feature connected buildings and a prominent main entrance.”

“It’s heartening to see the renaissance this company has undergone during my administration,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day told the Business Journals. “I’m happy to see these champions against a global health crisis planning to invest and create even deeper roots within our beautiful county with a $470 million expansion and 100 new hires. I commend Pfizer on its contribution to science and saving lives along with its commitment to calling Rockland home.”