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A Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical company involved in drug delivery and logistics is working with the city of Fishers to move into a vacant industrial building near Interstate 69 and State Road 37.
Members of the Fishers City Council on Monday night voted 8-0 to approve an economic development agreement with the unidentified company and establish an economic revitalization area at 12001 Exit Five Parkway.
The incentive package for the project, called “Project Horseshoe,” features a 10-year vacant-building tax abatement and a 10- or 15-year 100% personal property tax abatement, depending on the length of the company’s lease. In return for the incentives, the company would be expected to hire about 350 employees by 2029 at an average salary of about $65,000 year.
The 130,000-square-foot building previously housed Juno Lighting Group, which produced commercial lighting fixtures in Fishers until about five years ago.
Fishers Director of Economic and Community Development Megan Baumgartner told council members there are also about 3-1/2 acres of vacant land that the Project Horseshoe company could use to expand operations. The company plans to sign a 10- or 15-year lease at the location and invest at least $40 million in the facility.
Baumgartner said the company will present the incentive package from Fishers to their board of directors in July for formal approval.
“None of this moves forward unless they sign a lease on this facility, so this is our good faith effort to put this in front of them and make that a very easy decision for them,” Baumgartner said.
City officials would not name the company, which is described in council documents as a “Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based, world-leading contract development and manufacturing organization.”
Baumgartner said the company assembles pieces provided by other pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and provides logistics to deliver them.
“Where we found a special niche within the city of Fishers that has a lot of stickiness to it is within the pharmaceutical manufacturing process,” she said.
In recent years, Fishers focused on attracting life sciences companies to the city. Specifically, Baumgartner noted Genezen Laboratories Inc. and INCOG Biopharma Services Inc., which both call the city home, and Italy-based Stevenato Group is working to open a manufacturing plant in the city.
“We really feel like the entire state is trying to create a life-science manufacturing ecosystem,” Mayor Scott Fadness told council members. “Right here in [Fishers], we’ve got the vast majority of those building blocks now committed and underway in short order here in the city.”
Fadness added that Fishers competed “toe-to-toe with North Carolina” for the Project Horseshoe company.
“We are their No. 1 choice at the moment, and we want to go to the board to close the deal,” he said.
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