TERRE HAUTE — In what is seen as good news for the local economy, a drug company is eyeing Vigo County’s former Pfizer property as a new location for doing business.
Because nothing has been finalized at this point, economic development officials will not say how many jobs the move might contribute to the local economy and the name of the drug company is not being disclosed.
However, officials will say that the company – if all goes according to plan – is set to buy more than 200 acres of the former Pfizer property, including a complex of facilities developed to make the diabetes drug Exubera. The property is seven miles south of Terre Haute near U.S. 41.
“We think it’s a great opportunity,” said Steve Witt, president of the
Terre Haute Economic Development Corp. “We are really excited about it, obviously.”
The Terre Haute EDC has been in talks with the company, described as a pharmaceutical manufacturer, for about four months, Witt said. More information, including the name of the firm, is expected to be released at the Jan. 10 meeting of the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission, he said.
A legal notice, published in today’s Tribune-Star, states the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission is offering for sale a portion of the former Pfizer property, known as
Vigo County Industrial Park II. The offering price is $6.5 million, which is the average of two independent appraisals of the property, the ad states.
In 2009, the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission purchased 845 acres of land from Pfizer for $1.1 million after the drug maker closed the last of its operations in Vigo County. The commission sold about eight acres of former Pfizer property to Ivy Tech Community College last year.
The former Pfizer property is adjacent to the 1,500-acre original southern Vigo County industrial park.
The Redevelopment Commission is required by law to advertise in advance any property it wants to sell and to accept bids prior to the sale. However, the commission can list property for sale for specific uses and can reject bids it deems less likely to create jobs or benefit the community.
In this case, the property is listed in today’s legal notice for sale for pharmaceutical manufacturing “for finished dosage forms.” One more advertisement will run next week, 10 week-days prior to the Redevelopment Commission’s Jan. 10 meeting, Witt said.
While details about the company, the potential for job creation and possible salary and wage information are facts that are currently unavailable, this is good economic news for the Terre Haute area, Witt said.
If all goes according to expectations, the pharmaceutical company will submit its bid for the property by the Jan. 10 commission meeting. All bids will be read at that meeting, which is open to the public. The bids will remain open and subject to public inspection.
Pfizer announced in late 2007 it was closing its operations in southern Vigo County after six decades. That decision led to the loss of more than 700 jobs and reduced Vigo County’s assessed property value by 1.8 percent.
The property being purchased by the unnamed drug maker includes a nearly new manufacturing facility that is already certified by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration for meeting “Good Manufacturing Practices,” Witt said.
All bids for the potential purchase of the property must be submitted to the office of the Vigo County Auditor by 4 p.m. Jan. 10. The bids will be opened at the Redevelopment Commission meeting slated for 4 p.m. that same day in the Vigo County Annex.