Pharmaceutical company invests 2.6 billion euros in Dutch site
Rotterdam, 3 November 2025 – Rotterdam real estate developer and investor RED Company is developing a new European high-tech production, office and research facility for the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. The facility will be located in Katwijk and will become part of the Leiden Bio Science Park. The prestigious project of the global market leader involves an investment of 2.6 billion euros. It is one of the largest foreign business investments in the Netherlands in recent years.
RED Company, founded by Nanne de Ru and Niels Jansen, is the area owner and developer of the project. From a longlist of 66 European locations, the choice fell on RED Company’s site in Katwijk, near the Leiden Bio Science Park.
The facility of Eli Lilly, the global market leader in pharmaceuticals, will be located in Katwijk on a site that is now mainly occupied by horticultural greenhouses. The choice of location is the result of an intensive and careful process in which the pharmaceutical company had to weigh up where, among other things, the development potential, the local labour supply, the ecosystem of life science companies and the business climate were best. Through integrated collaboration between RED Company, the municipality of Katwijk, the province of Zuid-Holland and the national government, development opportunities were created where they were not self-evident. That is what ultimately won the pharmaceutical company over.
Entrepreneurial spirit
“We are extremely proud that, with a combination of entrepreneurship and constructive collaboration with the various authorities, we have helped ensure that Eli Lilly chose the Netherlands within Europe. For our firm, after ten years, this is the perfect moment to carry out an international project of this order.”
RED Company’s land position in the Zijlhoek-de Woerd area on the Valkenburgse Meer in the municipality of Katwijk has grown over the past five years to a total area of 30 hectares. On 20 hectares of this, Eli Lilly’s new research and production facility of more than 70,000 square metres will be realised in the coming years. The remaining hectares offer room for another 75,000 square metres of life science facilities as well as a considerable number of homes. All of this in accordance with the development vision of the municipality of Katwijk.
Floating office
RED Company has developed for an international pharmaceutical company before. In 2023, for instance, RED Company realised an office building with laboratory facilities of 13,500 square metres for Johnson & Johnson at the Leiden Bio Science Park. Other well-known projects carried out by RED Company are the Danone office and the ASICS headquarters in Hoofddorp, the Bunker Tower in Eindhoven, and the floating office in Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven, where RED Company itself is also based.
The development of the new research and production facility is a joint project of Eli Lilly, the national government, the province of Zuid-Holland, the municipality of Katwijk, the Leiden Bio Science Park, the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency and RED Company.
About RED Company
Real estate developer RED Company was founded in 2015 by Nanne de Ru and Niels Jansen. RED Company is driven by a constant search for quality and innovation in real estate development in order to maximise value: for the property, for the area, and also for the users and co-investors. RED Company holds a unique position in the market by combining the complementary expertise of development, design, construction, investment and management.
Partners and advisers
- Partners
- RED Company, Eli Lilly and Company, CBRE (adviser to Eli Lilly), Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, Province of Zuid-Holland, Municipality of Katwijk, Leiden Bio Science Park, InnovationQuarter
- Advisers
- Powerhouse Company, DLA Piper, EY, DGMR, Van Rossum, Adviesbureau DWA, Mees Ruimte & Milieu, TAUW, Antea Group Nederland, BOOT, Akson B.V., Goudappel, Knijnenburg-Zwirs, Overwater Vastgoedadviseurs, Taxateurs en Rentmeesters (OVTR), Sweco, Vollebregt-Barten Onroerende Zaken Glastuinbouw (adviser to the growers)
English translation of the Dutch press release of 3 November 2025.
