Royal Philips Relocating Research Division to Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE, MA—In connection with a five-year research alliance it has reached with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Royal Philips is relocating its Philips Research North America headquarters from Briarcliff Manor, NY to the Kendall Square neighborhood of Cambridge, MA.

Philips, which has its US headquarters based in Andover, MA, will relocate some operations out of its research headquarters at 345 Scarborough Road in Briarcliff Manor to Cambridge. A company spokesperson states that its North America Research headquarters will be relocated to Two Canal Park in approximately 50,000 square feet of space. The five-story, 315,000-square-foot building is owned by Beacon Capital Partners. Greg Lucas and Chuck Kavoogian of CBRE represented Beacon Capital, while John Osten and Bill Fitzgerald of JLL represented the tenant in the transaction.

Lea Armstrong, a spokesperson for Philips North America, says that some functions will remain in New York Sate. However, at press time she did not know the specific number of workers that will be relocating to Cambridge and how many will remain in New York. Operations now housed at the Briarcliff Manor offices including Research, Intellectual Property & Solutions, sales and others.

The five-year deal with MIT has a total budget of $25 million and is aimed at developing innovative solutions to address society's most pressing challenges in healthcare, as well as digital connected lighting systems to address the need to make cities more livable and sustainable, according to the joint announcement by Philips and MIT.

Royal Philips, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and has 108,000 employees worldwide, operates two main divisions that are devoted to health technology and lighting solutions. Philips has lit some of the most iconic structures in the world, including the Empire State Building. Philips recently announced innovations in connected, cloud-based LED lighting for the city of Los Angeles and the New NY Bridge (the new $3.9-billion Tappan Zee Bridge) across the Hudson River in New York that is currently under construction.

Joint teams from Royal Philips Research and MIT will work on advancements to help improve the management of cardiovascular disease and the diagnosis and treatment of various types of cancer, focused on improving patient outcomes, while reducing costs. Through the alliance, Philips will gain access to MIT's experts and clinical partners, allowing the company to better explore applications for population health management through the use of patient-centric, high-resolution imaging, healthcare informatics and data analytics, the company states.

In lighting, the collaboration will explore the advancement of energy-efficient lighting systems and services for densely populated cities.

"The Boston area is rich with innovative talent that is regularly applying new thinking to solving big societal issues and developing disruptive technologies that can address those issues in new ways; it's a culture and vision that is very much in line with that of Philips," says Henk van Houten, global head of Philips Research. "By moving to Cambridge and collaborating with MIT, its staff and its partners, Philips can work with some of the best minds in the world on healthcare delivery, looking at ways to better prevent, manage or treat common diseases across the health continuum. In addition, we will explore advancements in connected lighting systems that can improve energy-efficiency, safety, productivity and quality of people's daily lives."

"Kendall Square is a vibrant innovation ecosystem, and I am thrilled that Philips will further enhance the diversity of commercial market segments located adjacent to campus," says MIT associate provost Karen Gleason. "Working in close proximity, the Institute's researchers and experts at Philips will endeavor to develop new digital and health technologies that address key challenges in wellness and urban living. Through industrial alliances like this one, we also hope to ramp up the speed with which we move new technologies from the lab to impact."

Philips North America's Armstrong  tells Globest.com that the company received a tax incentive in connection with its relocation from the Massachusetts Life Science Center. On March 25th of this year, MLSC announced that Philips Electronics North America of Andover, MA was awarded $1.8 million in incentives in connection with the creation of 100 new jobs in the state.

The U.S. Philips companies are affiliates of the Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics N.V. Philips opened its first U.S. office in 1933, and today, the United States is the company's largest single market in the world, with more than 22,700 employees and operations at 50 major facilities in 22 states.