Life sciences firm announces expansion

Mar 4, 2010 — Hendricks County Flyer

Wade Coggeshall

Mar. 4, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- INDIANAPOLIS -- If there's one sector of the economy that's growing in these recessionary times, it's life sciences. And Indianapolis is the site of one of its bigger expansions.

Dow AgroSciences last Thursday announced plans to expand its global headquarters on the city's northwest side. It calls for an investment of more than $340 million that will create up to 577 new jobs by 2015.

Kenda Resler Friend, corporate communications leader for the agriculture-based firm, calls the expansion "significant." Currently Dow AgroSciences has about 1,200 employees.

Gov. Mitch Daniels seemed to agree with Friend's assessment.

"R&D leadership in the life sciences is a dream of every state in the Union," Daniels said in a press release. "Here in Indiana, it's not a dream, but a vibrant reality, and Dow AgroSciences' steady growth is a major reason why. This expansion makes Indiana a true world capital of agricultural science."

Last July the company announced it was leasing an 80,000 square-foot research facility from Browning that's adjacent to its headquarters. Friend said that space will be full by June.

"This next phase of our expansion is to continue building the space we need for high-tech laboratories and research areas," she said, the first being a 14,000 square-foot greenhouse and a 175,000 square-foot research and development facility.

The new jobs will primarily be in the agricultural and plant sciences, with pay ranges of $65,000 to $90,000 annually. But Friend said Dow AgroSciences will also add employees to its information technology department.

"We generate so much data doing the research that information management is another area we're going to need help in," she said.

There are about 200 job openings currently listed on the company's website at www.dowagro.com. With the expansion being a five-year commitment, Friend said the hiring will be steady.

"We're not going to hire them all the first year or last year," she said. "It's going to be steady as we go, as we have the facilities ready to put them in."

In a time when so many sectors of the economy are shrinking, Friend noted the demand for food remains. And as the amount of agricultural land becomes less worldwide, the need for farmers to become more efficient is greater.

"We feel very blessed, quite honestly, to be in an industry that's tasked with feeding the world," Friend said.

As part of the expansion, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Dow AgroSciences up to $12.5 million in performance-based tax credits and $205,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans. Another $500,000 will be given to the city for road, sewer, and water upgrades. Both the city and IEDC will support a request tax increment financing for Dow AgroSciences.

wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com

Newstex ID: KRTB-0449-42587213