Surgical transplant firm sets up logistics center in Plainfield, plans to hire 127

A Virginia-based company that specializes in organ and tissue transplantation is expanding into central Indiana, with plans to hire more than 127 people by the end of 2023 at a logistics facility near the Indianapolis International Airport.

LifeNet Health announced Tuesday afternoon it has set up a 70,000-square-foot biologics logistics center at 845 Airtech Parkway in Plainfield. It said it has invested $18 million to establish and equip the center, and already created 45 new jobs at the site.

The company, which employs about 1,200 people in the United States and Europe, is currently hiring for a facilities manager, a general manager and distribution service technicians. It did not disclose how much the positions would pay.

In an  announcement, LifeNet said it provides a variety of transplant services, from organ procurement to tissue-implant technology and cellular therapies. Each year, the company distributes more than 600,000 tissue implants for use in orthopedics, neurosurgery, cardiac and vascular surgery for patients in more than 40 countries. It is also the federally designated organ procurement organization for Virginia, where it facilitates nearly 500 organ transplants a year.

The company, based in Virginia Beach, was founded in 1982 as Eastern Virginia Tissue Bank, and took its current name in 2007. It has grown over the years through numerous mergers, including with Virginia’s Organ Procument Agency in 2000, Florida Tissue Services Inc. in 2006, and Northwest Tissue Services in 2010.

The not-for-profit company had total revenue of $352.5 million in 2017, according to its Form 990 tax return. It had total assets of $326.5 million.

“The surgeons and patients we serve demand unique capabilities,” Rony Thomas, LifeNet’s CEO and president, said in a written statement. “Establishing this biologics logistics center represents a commitment of excellence to our customers and partners, as well as their patients.”

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered up to $1.25 million in conditional tax credits and $100,000 in training grants, based on the company’s job-creation plans. The town of Plainfield will consider additional incentives at the request of the Hendricks County Economic Development Commission.

The Plainfield facility is designed to complement LifeNet Health’s existing locations on the East and West coasts, “ensuring it can meet the growing need for tissues and cells to support both surgical patient care and biomedical research,” the IEDC said.

According to a previous announcement in February from HSA Commercial Real Estate, LifeNet had signed a lease and planned to occupy the space beginning in July at Gateway V, the most recent warehouse added to Gateway Business Park in Plainfield.