A Maryland-based biotech firm said Tuesday it plans to break ground on an expansion at one of its two Baltimore locations in the next six months.
The addition, expected to cost more than $60 million, would roughly double Emergent BioSolutions' current space on Lombard Street, where it purchased a 58,000-square-foot multi-use manufacturing building in 2009, said Bob Kramer, Emergent BioSolutions chief financial officer.
Emergent expects to add about 158 jobs at the site over the next four years, according to the state Department of Business and Economic Development, which is supporting the project with a $2 million loan. Emergent, with a total workforce of more than 1,300, currently employs about 400 people in Maryland, including roughly 170 in Baltimore, Kramer said.
"Emergent has been very aggressive in growing our footprint in Maryland," he said. "We are committed to continuing to expand our footprint in Maryland and in Baltimore in particular."
The firm also owns a roughly 70,000-square-foot facility on South Paca Street, acquired as part of its 2014 purchase of the Canadian biopharmaceutical firm Cangene.
The Lombard Street facility is being developed as a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, one of three sites established in 2012 by the federal government to develop and manufacture products related to unmet medical needs, such as Ebola. Emergent received a government award of more than $163 million as part of the designation.
In 2013, Baltimore's Board of Estimates agreed to sell Emergent BioSolutions three acres at 6001 E. Lombard St. for the expansion. That deal closed in November, with the firm paying $220,691, after a $250,000 discount tied to the creation of 100 jobs by 2020.
Now the state is close to formally signing off on the $2 million loan, Kramer said. The loan, which can be forgiven if job creation conditions are met, was first announced in October 2013 in connection with an expansion of the firm's headquarters in Gaithersburg and the addition of 133 jobs there.
DBED Secretary Mike Gill said in a statement that the loan would help the company's expansion and in the process "solidify Maryland's position as a life sciences powerhouse."
Kramer said the loan will keep Emergent competitive. The company already has invested about $60 million in the purchase and renovation of the current Lombard Street facility, he said. The two-story addition would add adding manufacturing, storage and quality control space, Kramer said.
"Given the investment that we're prepared to make in the state … as well as the job creation we expect, we thought it was in the state's best interest to help Emergent any way they can in terms of being competitive," he said.