WEST BATON ROUGE, LA-A Northern California pharmaceutical company has put the city at the top of its site search for a 10-acre tract to build a 140,000-sf biotech research incubator. The $43-million project will house companies that develop drugs and therapies to combat age-related diseases.
Telomolecular Corp.'s plan calls for four-story twin buildings. Deborah Biggs, executive director for the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, says they will be built in separate phases. When the first building is at least 50% preleased, construction will begin on the second one.
Biggs tells GlobeSt.com that Telomolecular Corp. of Rancho Cordova is considering two or three sites in the area. She isn't certain when a decision will be reached. "They're not working with a realtor as yet because they want to show their investors the property first," she says.
Telomolecular spent much of the summer considering cities in south and southeast Louisiana for the incubator, including East Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans. Biggs says the company not only preferred West Baton Rouge's available sites, but also opportunities like establishing a work-study lab tech with the high schools to help train future employees.
"The purpose of this project is to pool companies like missions, talent and focus on human aging to accelerate impending advances in this exciting field of science," David Dollar, vice president of sales for Telomolecular, says in a press release. "We have seen this strategy work in research parks throughout the US and are confident it will work in West Baton Rouge." Representatives from the company did not return calls by press time.
The Telomolecular complex will bring 300 to 350 jobs. "Telomolecular could end up being among the top 10 to 12 employers in our area," Biggs says.
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