Protein Design Labs Opens $200M Biotech Plant

In the next few years, the Fremont, CA-based biotech company will add 100 employees to its present Twin Cities staff of 180 as the plant goes through the lengthy testing and regulatory approvals necessary to become a commercial operation. Ann Bateman, a Brooklyn Park community development official, says her community is excited to have a player in the new economy on their budding business corridor along Highway 610. The city already features the PDL plant on posters at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport touting business development opportunities along Highway 610, she adds.

"Minnesota's abundant water and inexpensive power, construction and labor, were factors in PDL's decision to locate here," says Gene Goddard, a bioscience industry specialist with the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development.

The decision to build the Protein Design Labs plant preceded Gov. Tim Pawlenty's biosciences industry initiative launched in February 2003. Still, PDL's expansion validates the state's efforts, says Ray Front, head of MNBIO, the trade organization for the state biotech industry.

Aside from some permitting help, the main government involvement is up to $800,000 in tax increment financing from the city of Brooklyn Park. The money will come in the form of a property tax rebate over a nine-year period, Bateman explains. A second phase is planned for the 28-acre site--timing has not been set--for an additional 200,000-sf facility and 200 more jobs, she adds.

About 400 workers spent nearly two years building the facility, reports Phil Gerlach, PDL's senior director of manufacturing services. The general contractor on the project was Minneapolis-based McGough Construction, while the architect and engineering firm was Fluor Corp. of Greenville, SC.