The saga of Pfizer Inc.'s brief foray into New London came to a bittersweet conclusion in July with the sale to Electric Boat of the pharmaceutical giant's former research-and-development headquarters off Pequot Avenue.

The submarine builder paid $55 million for the complex that Pfizer built for almost $300 million just nine years before.

Pfizer won a 10-year tax abatement when it built the three-tower complex, but also received a raft of bad publicity because of the project's association with eminent domain and the infamous Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London.

With pharmaceutical sales lagging and no blockbuster medicines on the horizon, Pfizer was forced to sell the offices.

Pfizer officials said scientists working in New London would be consolidated into the company's Groton campus by the end of next year, so the sale would not affect local employment.

- Lee Howard