Suburban Charlotte plan for 1,200 high-paying jobs is from a Swiss biopharma firm
Swiss biopharmaceutical company Octapharma is the company behind the high-profile $1.5 billion redevelopment plans just outside Charlotte in Rock Hill that are set to create more than 1,200 jobs, officials disclosed Monday night.
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The company introduced itself at the June 29 York County Council public hearing for a tax incentive agreement related to the project. Its identity had been under a nondisclosure agreement involving Rock Hill and York County.
Both the $1.5 billion investment and 1,200 projected jobs put Octapharma among the biggest economic development projects ever introduced in York County.
Octapharma uses plasma, most of it donated at company-owned sites, to create medicine that treats a range of diseases, immune disorders and critically ill patients.
The company’s plans for Rock Hill include a corporate headquarters campus and a manufacturing facility.
Monday’s announcement ends weeks of speculation on which company will build a headquarters and manufacturing site in Palmetto Research Park, the city-owned site off Interstate 77 at Exit 81 where the Carolina Panthers once had a headquarters site and practice facility under construction. The team halted that project four years ago amid a funding dispute with the city.
Octapharma went by the codename Project Palmetto Rock as details emerged about its plans through city and county approvals related to the project. Construction is expected to start late this year, where Palmetto Parkway crosses the interstate.
Headquarters jobs would average more than $141,000 per year, and manufacturing jobs nearly $103,000. In York County, the average wage is $63,805, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Octapharma bills itself as the world’s largest privately owned plasma fractionator.
A fractionator separates a mixture into individual components. The company creates medicines and therapies from proteins sourced from human plasma and cell lines. Medicines are used in haematology, immunotherapy and critical care.
The company is headquartered in Lachen, Switzerland, southeast of Zurich by Lake Zurich. Octapharma has more than 11,000 employees worldwide and generated about $4 billion in revenue last year, according to its website.
The privately held company was founded in 1983.
The manufacturing piece is a nearly $1.3 billion investment, with another $190 million going to the corporate headquarters construction.
The high pay is a major selling point for the project that has widespread county support, said York County Councilman Tom Audette, a member of the county Economic Development Committee.
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“The growth opportunity is big with this,” he said. “And it’s a type of company that will attract other good companies to this area.”
Monday’s announcement also ends years of speculation on what would replace the failed Panthers project.
The city acquired more than 200 acres through bankruptcy for the company set up to do business for the Panthers in Rock Hill, GT Real Estate. Rock Hill officials began promoting the site, complete with a new interchange added as part of the Panthers plans, as a prime redevelopment opportunity for life science or advanced manufacturing companies.
In April, the city began the process of selling a 50-acre portion of Palmetto Research Park for Project Palmetto Rock.
This month, the city finalized a separate sale of 25 acres within Palmetto Research Park to North Carolina-based Novant Health. The company intends to put a $300-million medical campus there.
A week later, York County Council gave initial approval to tax incentives related to Project Palmetto Rock. Monday’s public hearing will be followed by one final vote expected in July.
Because the city owns Palmetto Research Park, officials were able to hold out and say no to several redevelopment opportunities the past four years in order to bring in high-pay jobs, said Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys.
“We decided we wanted to use this asset, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to bring jobs to our community that don’t exist here now,” he said.
Octapharma’s presence in Rock Hill, along with Novant, delivers on the city’s goal of becoming a life sciences and advanced manufacturing destination for businesses, Gettys said. There’s reason to expect more, he said.
Partnerships with South Carolina and Charlotte economic development teams combine with new life sciences programs or advanced manufacturing programs at places like York Technical College and Winthrop University. City utilities and zoning are being used to create more sites along the interstate that are business ready.
“We’ve got a real opportunity to bring these jobs, en masse, to this area,” Gettys said.
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