Abzena Holdings (US) LLC will locate a significant biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Lee County, creating 325 jobs and investing $213 million in Sanford, Governor Roy Cooper announced.
Abzena’s project in Lee County will establish a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility featuring a design optimized for phase 3 and commercial manufacturing of biologics. Using a phased construction approach, the company will initially build four modular production suites, with each of those suites capable of housing two large bioreactors.
Abzena’s project in North Carolina, which will be formally carried out by a new, wholly owned subsidiary company, will be facilitated by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee.
Over the course of the 12-year term of this grant, the project is estimated to grow the state’s economy by $1.5 billion. Using a formula that takes into account the new tax revenues generated by the new jobs, the JDIG agreement authorizes the potential reimbursement to the company of up to $6,940,800, spread over 12 years. Over those 12 years, new state tax revenues generated by the new jobs will exceed $45 million.
State payments only occur following performance verification by the departments of Commerce and Revenue that the company has met its incremental job creation and investment targets. JDIG projects result in positive net tax revenue to the state treasury, even after taking into consideration the grant’s reimbursement payments to a given company.
Abzena’s JDIG agreement could also move as much as $771,200 into a fund that helps rural communities across the state attract business in the future. When companies select a site located in a Tier 2 county such as Lee, their JDIG agreements move some of the new tax revenue into the state’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account. Local communities in more economically challenged areas of the state use grants from the Utility Account to build public infrastructure projects, which can improve a community’s ability to attract companies to their regions. ■