$250 Million Plant Breaks Ground in Melrose Park

MELROSE PARK, Ill., Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresenius Kabi, a  global health care company, and the Village of Melrose Park today broke ground for a $250 million manufacturing campus. The development in Chicago's near west suburbs will transform the current plant into a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing campus.  It comes following an extensive intergovernmental agreement worked out last year that provided for tax incentives and land use controls.

"Fresenius Kabi has been an exceptional corporate neighbor, and I'm pleased they've chosen to plant deeper roots here," said Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico. "Melrose Park is home to dozens of industrial and manufacturing businesses and we are proud that a company with Fresenius Kabi's global presence will now have such a major position in our community and within the state of Illinois."

Fresenius Kabi is a global pharmaceutical company that specializes in life-saving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition. The company's global headquarters is in Bad Homburg, Germany.  Today, the company employs more than 1,700 people in Illinois.

The current Melrose Park site manufactures generic, sterile injectable pharmaceuticals used in hospitals and clinics for chronically and critically ill patients throughout the United States. The expansion will create multiple new buildings connected to the existing manufacturing site and will feature fully automated aseptic filling lines using state-of-the-art isolator technology, expanded lyophilization (freeze-drying) capabilities, formulation areas, a dedicated warehouse for raw materials and components and an administration building with conference center, laboratories, office space and cafeteria.

Fresenius Kabi will invest the $250 million in the project over the next decade. The project is expected to be completed in 2026, and will lead to hundreds of high-paying manufacturing and construction jobs in the Melrose Park region.

"This project will create many opportunities for our employees, who work around-the-clock to produce life-saving medicines for patients who need them," said Steven R. Nowicki, senior vice president of Global Operations for North America, Pharmaceuticals Division at Fresenius Kabi. "Our expectation is that the positive effects of this extensive construction project and our continued growth will benefit the people and business community of Melrose Park and Illinois."

The Fresenius Kabi expansion represents a key component of the economic turnaround that Mayor Serpico has overseen during his time in office. This effort has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs in retail, manufacturing, and industrial businesses. Over the past two decades, Melrose Park has welcomed major retailers like Costco, Al Piemonte Nissan, Best Buy and Menards. Serpico has also overseen the redevelopment of Winston Plaza Shopping Center, one of Chicagoland's first shopping center destinations. These developments, along with significant infrastructure projects, have transformed Melrose Park into an economic leader in the western suburbs.

SOURCE Village of Melrose Park