A person who recommends sites for multinational corporations put Eli Lilly and Co.’s choice of the Lehigh Valley in perspective Tuesday afternoon.
“Only one site, only one place, survives the processing of thousands,” said Jay Biggins, executive managing director of Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co. “The process involves analysis from the start. … It requires cooperation. It involves high emotion. There’s a lot of trust involved.”
Basically, once you announce a $3.5 billion investment into a community, it’s very, very difficult to take it back, he said. It was impressive how much everyone in the Lehigh Valley “was on the same page.”
“We’ve never seen a problem,” Biggins said, “which is really amazing when you think of all the moving parts.”
The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.’s annual meeting at the ArtsQuest Center in Bethlehem was a continuation of the celebration from Lilly’s announcement Jan. 31 that it will build a nearly 800,000-square-foot complex in Upper Macungie Township that will employ 850 people to manufacture weight-loss drugs.
Construction is expected to begin this year and wrap up in 2031. It was pointed out more than once during the event that Lilly’s investment is the largest economic development project in Lehigh Valley history and the largest life sciences investment in Pennsylvania history.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, making yet another visit to the Lehigh Valley, gave the keynote address, while Lilly’s senior vice president of global parenteral network expansion, Daniel VonDielingen, presented more information on the project.
“When we looked at this area, we felt that we would be able to have a workforce that could operate in an innovative environment,” VonDielingen said, noting a $5 million state investment to turn Lehigh Carbon Community College into a talent pipeline for Lilly.
“Fifty percent of the jobs [come from such a program] and it could be higher here,” he said. “We’ve done this in North Carolina. With that [LCCC] certificate, you can have an entry point into our site.”
He said 90% of the hires will be local.
VonDielingen gave an overview of what will be in the plant that will manufacture Zepbound and eventually Retatrutide, a next-generation medicine currently in clinical trials.
He said the plant will feature “smart manufacturing” that includes fully automated warehouses with automated guided vehicles and advanced robotics to ensure 100% visual inspection of medicines.
VonDielingen joined a panel discussion with Biggins, LVEDC President and CEO Don Cunningham and state Chief Transformation and Opportunity Officer Ben Kirshner.
Cunningham said the site was “planned well.”
“Formal plans have not been submitted to the township for the project, but the property has been zoned industrial with an eye for a pharmaceutical company,” he said.
The Upper Macungie Planning Commission agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting includes Lilly’s plans for the site, just west of Fogelsville between Interstate 78 and Old Route 22.
In his address, Shapiro said one of his economic goals was to attract life science companies to the state.
“I announced that plan more than two years ago — half a mile away from here at OraSure’s facility in Bethlehem,” he said. “In that plan, we put a point of emphasis on life sciences as one of our five pillars of opportunity for the future, because life sciences is an industry where we are poised for explosive innovation and growth.”
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.