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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based BioStorage Technologies Inc. is planning to add 108 jobs in the next five years as part of a $7 million expansion and is seeking financial incentives from the city for the second time in three years.
Founded in 2002, BioStorage is near the Indianapolis International Airport where it prepares, stores and transports tissue and blood samples. The company serves biotech companies, as well as medical-device makers and academic research institutions.
BioStorage’s latest expansion plan follow its move to the current facility in 2009, when the city offered a seven-year tax abatement as an incentive. Under terms of that agreement, the company was to have 175 local employees by the end of 2012, according to city documents.
The economic downturn put a damper on those plans, however, and BioStorage added just 25 workers over the past three years, boosting local employment to 75.
City officials are recommending a four-year incentive plan that will include compliance provisions tied to the previous and proposed tax abatements should BioStorage fail to meet its hiring goals by 2017, according to city documents.
The city’s Metropolitan Development Commission is set to consider the company’s request for incentives at its Wednesday meeting.
MDC staff said that “a project such as this would not be economically feasible without the tax abatement incentive.”
BioStorage occupies 59,160 square feet in the Park Fletcher industrial park and has leased an additional 25,612 square feet to expand operations. As part of the expansion, the company plans to invest $7 million in laboratory equipment, in addition to other equipment to handle and store samples.
BioStorage says the 108 jobs it plans to add with the help of the abatement will pay an average of $32.48 an hour, the same average wage the company’s 75 existing employees currently earn.
Its $7 million investment should result in an increase to the city’s tax base of $2.8 million, the city said. During the four years of the abatement, BioStorage should save more than $209,000 in property taxes while paying about $147,500.
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