Former Eli Lilly building to get new business

MANASSAS - The unfinished building on Innovation Drive off University Boulevard slated to hold an Eli Lilly insulin manufacturing plant will get finished and a new business will move in.

Covance Inc., a pharmaceutical research and development company, announced Tuesday that it will move its laboratories from Fairfax to Prince William County.

Prince William Chairman Corey A. Stewart, R-at large, broke the news during a Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting Tuesday.

Stewart said the addition of the Princeton, N.J.-based firm will complement the Northern Virginia Forensics Laboratory, MediaTech and the George Mason Biomedical Research Laboratory at Innovation Technology Park near Va. 28 and Va. 234.

Eli Lilly, which planned a 300,000-square-foot plant, pulled out of Prince William County in January.

Covance will finish and expand construction to 410,000 square feet, said Jason Grant, the spokesman for the county's department of economic development.

"Covance provides us a great opportunity," Grant said. "This just continues to allow us to be able to grow."

A county press release stated that Covance officials expect to finish construction by Jan. 2011 and move 450 employees from Fairfax County by the end of 2011. The company also intends to hire an additional 100 employees by 2014, the release stated.

The move to the county represents a $175 million investment, Grant said.

At the same time Stewart announced Covance's decision, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced plans to give Covance $1 million from the Governor's Opportunity Fund, which is used to provide incentives for companies to stay in or move to the state.

Prince William County will have to match the governor's contribution out of its economic development opportunity fund in order for the company to receive the state money, Grant said.

Lilly returned $2 million to the county's opportunity fund and $2.2 million to the state's opportunity fund when it halted construction in Prince William County.

Covance also qualifies for a $1.5 million grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program which offers financial assistance to to existing Virginia companies that plan to expand, stated a governor's office press release.