The Texas A&M University System and local government leaders are working to firm up plans to bring a large biomedical research and vaccination manufacturing center to Bryan, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal hasn't been finalized, but officials said they hope the biomanufacturing company G-Con, LLC will build a 100,000-square-foot facility near the system's new Health Science Center that's under construction.
Officials, who said word on funding may come within three weeks, expect the project to bring almost 150 jobs to the area with an average salary of $75,000 a year.
The project is likely to spur more development in the biomedical industry around the Health Science Center and the Institute for Innovative Therapeutics, helping develop a "biotechnology corridor" on the periphery of A&M's campus near Texas 47.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Bryan Mayor Mark Conlee at a Bryan City Council meeting Tuesday evening. "This is the beginning of what could be a game-changer, not just for Brazos County, but for the whole state of Texas and the pharmaceutical industry."
The goal of the facility would be to use plant-based proteins and new construction methods to produce large amounts of vaccines for distribution.
The first vaccine developed would be for the H1N1 virus and act as a "proof of principal" for how similar needs could be more successfully met by G-Con's methods.
Tax assistance
Texas A&M System Vice Chancellor for Research Brett Giroir said the project needs help from both local and federal government agencies to be implemented, and officials have been working to obtain that support.
In October, Bryan officials provided the A&M System with more than 21 acres near the Health Science Center for the system to lease to G-Con. The City Council voted Tuesday to develop a tax increment reinvestment zone that would use any increased tax revenue coming from that area to invest in infrastructure in the biotechnology corridor.
The council also approved an ordinance that would allow the city to enter into a tax abatement agreement with G-Con. That would enable the company to avoid paying a portion of its city property taxes in its first 10 years of existence if it built a facility valued at at least $30 million.
Even with the abatement, officials anticipate the project will bring in tax revenue. According to an estimate created by the Research Valley Partnership and provided to The Eagle by City Councilman Mike Southerland, the company would pay at least $828,155 in property taxes during the 10-year abatement period.
At least $1 million in taxes would be abated over that decade if G-Con lives up to the terms of the agreement.
Little information was available about G-Con on Tuesday. Its Web site said it was based out of College Station, but provided a phone number with a Dallas area code.
A person who answered the phone said he was not authorized to speak about the company's plans, but would forward the interview request to the appropriate people, who would then contact The Eagle. They did not respond by late Tuesday.
The company now awaits word from funding sources.
"The main investment would be from the federal government, and we have ongoing advanced stages of interaction with them on this project," Giroir said.
A local official with knowledge of the situation said that plans were in the works late last week to announce the project on Tuesday in a Houston event attended by Gov. Rick Perry and local representatives. Those plans were either postponed or scrapped.
A&M System spokesman Jason Cook said there was "an idea" of including the governor in the announcement, but he said the discussion never came to fruition.
System officials said they discussed unveiling the project Tuesday, but never had firm plans. They remain confident in their funding strategy, but have contingency plans in case they fall through, officials said.
Looking to the future
The project is part of a larger effort by the A&M System and state and local officials to promote biotechnology in Texas in hopes that the state will compete with already established industries on the East and West coasts.
"One of our aims is to make this a third coast for biotech and pharmaceuticals," Giroir said.
Attempts to reach that goal included the construction of the three programs that make up the A&M System's Institute for Innovative Therapeutics -- the Texas Institute for Genomic Medi-cine, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing and the Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies.
Two of those programs received start-up grants of $50 million each from Gov. Rick Perry's office -- one in 2005 from the Texas Enterprise Fund and in 2009 from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
The projects have been criticized by some faculty members as unwise and against the mission of a public university.
They point to an internal audit that criticized the Texas Institute of Genomic Medicine after it failed to receive a major federal research grant and, because it had no back-up business plan, required the system to spend millions of dollars to keep it running.
System officials have since said that they have corrected early troubles with the institute's business plan and that it is a top-notch scientific facility.
They say that the institute's three programs are part of a package that will attract businesses to a strip of land -- some in Bryan and some in College Station -- in between the Institute for Innovative Therapeutics and the Health Science Center that they are calling the "biotechnology corridor."
G-Con has the possibility of being the first company to build on that land, but others will likely come, officials said, and the College Station City Council plans to discuss economic incentive options for the part of the corridor in that city.
"We are hoping that there will be many more businesses developing between the two cities and our conversation will be more about the possibilities in the future in College Station," said City Manager Glenn Brown.
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
