Leinco gets $1.5M incentives to stay here
St. Louis Business Journal
August 25, 2010
By Kelsey Volkmann
Leinco Technologies Inc. has landed more than $1.5 million in incentives from Missouri and St. Louis County to expand into part of the former Chrysler supplier complex in Fenton instead of moving to Florida.
The Missouri Department of Economic Development has approved $925,283 in Missouri Quality Jobs assistance, $100,000 in Customized Training money and $100,000 in Development Tax Credits.
The Missouri Technology Corp., led by Executive Director Jason Hall, is providing a $300,000 biotechnology loan.
The St. Louis County Economic Council is providing a $100,000 niche loan for working capital and has worked with Leinco to obtain a $1.33 million SBA loan to purchase and improve their new bioscience research and manufacturing center.
The assistance offered to Leinco Technologies will allow it to expand from a 10,000-square-foot research and manufacturing facility in unincorporated St. Louis County into a 27,000-square-foot building in Fenton that was once part of the Chrysler supplier complex. Leinco will initially occupy 17,000 square feet of space in the new building.
Leinco, led by founder, President and CEO Pat Leinert, said it would provide $3.26 million in private investment, retain 20 positions and create 48 full-time jobs at the project location.
Leinco's bioscience research and development and manufacturing center is slated to open by the end of the year, Leinert said.
"Entrepreneurs like Pat Leinert are critical to Missouri's efforts to lead the nation's economic recovery," Hall said in a statement Wednesday.
The company has served as a landing spot for several displaced bioscience workers impacted by Pfizer's recent layoffs. Pfizer is cutting 600 jobs from its 1,000-member work force in Chesterfield, Mo., through 2011 as part of a larger restructuring following its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth.
Last year, Leinco announced plans to move from St. Louis to Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., after being offered loans totaling $700,000 from the town of Jupiter and the city of Palm Beach Gardens.
But now it will relocate to space that was occupied by local Chrysler suppliers. The automaker closed its Dodge Ram truck plant in Fenton in July 2009 after closing its adjacent minivan plant in October 2008.
"This is great news, not just because of the economic impact these good-paying jobs will have across the St. Louis region. It also reaffirms St. Louis' prominence as a major hub for biotechnology," U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., said in a statement.
Leinco Technologies, established in 1992 by Leinert, provides research services and specialty bioscience manufacturing, including early research products and proteins. Leinco's products and services augment the work of bioscience researchers.
