European pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has purchased the 70-acre Amgen campus in Longmont for $64.5 million.

AstraZeneca plans to “immediately” begin utilizing the space to warehouse items needed to support manufacturing operations in Boulder, according to company spokesperson Abigail Bozarth

“No additional decisions have been taken by AstraZeneca for product placement or investment at this time,” Bozarth said. “However, the Longmont site has the capability and infrastructure needed to support our future product portfolio.”

AstraZeneca purchased Amgen’s Boulder facility for $14.6 million in September 2015. The site is being built out for future production related to work being done by its biologics research and development subsidiary, MedImmune, including production of an experimental bladder cancer drug, durvalumab.

At the time of the purchase, AstraZeneca officials said it hoped to have licensure for the Boulder production site by late 2017.

The Longmont property has been for sale since June 2015, after production of the anemia drug Epogen was halted by Amgen the previous year.

The site at 4000 Nelson Road encompasses six buildings, including two labs, a warehouse, a utilities plant and a manufacturing facility.

AstraZeneca’s purchase also included 159 acres of vacant land adjoining the property at 8001 Nelson Road, originally listed for $9 million.

The acquisition of the Longmont campus comes amid reports that Amgen is preparing to restart production of Epogen there as it waits for its facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to ramp up.

Real estate agent Eric Dienstbach of Binswanger, who represented Amgen in the transaction, told the Camera last week a leaseback provision will allow the company to continue operating “certain aspects” of the facility for a period of time.

Dienstbach and officials from both Amgen and AstraZeneca declined to disclose the terms of that agreement.

Amgen declined to comment on the sale or terms of the contract, except to provide this statement: “The sale is a positive outcome for the future of Colorado’s economy and the growth of the region’s technology sector.”

The sale should help Longmont’s commercial real estate market, which has been plagued by high vacancy rates and low rents in comparison to surrounding markets.

Vacancy rates for office and industrial space have been inflated by the empty Amgen campus and the 450,000-square-foot former Maxtor building at 2452 Clover Basin Drive.

“Those two vacancies count for more than 50 percent” of available space, said Jessica Erickson, president of the Longmont Economic Development Partnership, at a recent real estate event.

Removing those two properties from the equation would take Longmont’s high 19.7 percent vacancy rate down to less than 7 percent. The lower rates are more attractive to developers who might consider building, because the limited supply would allow them to charge higher rents.

At one time, Amgen was one of the area’s top employers. As recently as 2013, more than 700 people worked for the biopharma firm in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

When the company announced in 2014 it would close its Boulder and Longmont facilities, 430 workers were in place at both those sites.

AstraZeneca’s Bozarth said hiring at the property will be “minimal” in the near term.

“The growth in jobs will come as we decide how best to invest in the infrastructure needed to support our biologics pipeline, as (it) matures and expansions are deemed necessary,” she said.

Shay Castle: 303-473-1626, castles@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/shayshinecastle