Winslow approves biotech firm deal
November 10, 2009
WINSLOW -- A local biotechnology firm that's in the midst of a three-year, $8.8 million project will get back tax money to help pay for its expansion.
The Town Council on Monday night held a public hearing, and then voted unanimously to approve the creation of a tax-increment financing district, also known as a TIF, to aid the expansion of Lohmann Animal Health International.
Chairman Steve Russell said the council's approval came following a recommendation from a TIF advisory committee.
"It's one of the few tools we have available to us to help a business expand," Russell said.
Lohmann Animal Health, which has facilities in Winslow and Cuxhaven, Germany, manufactures and supplies poultry vaccines that are sold around the world. It has testing, production, packaging and shipping facilities on 375 China Road in Winslow, with about 105 employees in town.
The creation of a TIF district on a portion of the Lohmann property would freeze the value of property increases and funnel the revenue from the frozen taxes back to the town and company over 20 years. The reimbursed revenue would help the company finance its expansion, while enabling the town to pay for future economic development projects in places like the town-owned commercial complex on Benton Avenue.
Lohmann Animal Health estimates the expansion project will result in $4.9 million in new assessed value for the property, generating $1.05 million in new revenue over 20 years. That money will be split -- Lohmann retaining $948,000 to pay toward its expansion and $522,000 for the town to repair a parking lot at a municipal building off Benton Avenue, pay dues to local groups and pay for town economic-development activities.
The newly created TIF district for Lohmann Animal Health encompasses 30.5 acres, on both sides of China Road, and Kenneth Eskelund Drive and Benton Avenue.
Now, Lohmann Animal Health is constructing a biological production center. It includes two big structures -- an animal testing facility and expanded laboratory -- allowing the company to add new technology it has patented that produces a new line of food-safety vaccines, said company CEO Dave Zacek.
The company's 12,500-square-foot building be expanded to about 60,000 square feet of total space, allowing more space for production automation of bacterial vaccines.
Under the project, the company is also reorganizing its floor plan "to modernize it and make it better," Zacek said. More space will be added for meeting and training rooms as well.
The project comes at a critical time for the company, Zacek said, noting the economic downturn and the company's standing as one of four leaders in the poultry-vaccine field.
"It will help bring a lot of new sales volumes to the company; help make us a little more secure," Zacek said. "We do sell our products to 40 different countries. Forty percent is to the U.S. and 60 percent goes outside the U.S."
Zacek said the project began a little over a year ago and is now in its "middle phase," with total completion expected next summer.
Noreen Norton of Eaton Peabody Consulting Group LLC, representing Lohmann Animal Health, told the council that the project will create 30 new jobs and retain an existing 69.
Resident Wilma Lombardi took issue with those figures, questioning whether 69 jobs were actually in danger. "That's a misrepresentation," she said.
Zacek said the project is needed for the facility to remain viability in the global marketplace, and therefore is needed to keep those jobs in the future as the company eyes further expansions.
Councilor James Byrne agreed. ""I think this is a good thing to do ... to keep those people here," Byrne said. "This is a good project to secure these jobs and keep the business here in Winslow."
Courtesy of the Morning Sentinel
Scott Monroe -- 861-9253
smonroe@centralmaine.com