Project Bulletin: August 22, 2023

Senior executives from Illumina and Premas Life Sciences cut the ribbon at Illumina’s India office inauguration.

Last week, San Diego–based DNA sequencing pioneer Illumina Inc. announced the opening of a new office and Illumina Solutions Center in Bengaluru, India. Senior executives from the company and its longtime channel partner Premas Life Sciences cut the ribbon together. “Now with its own permanent facility, Illumina will continue to collaborate with Premas to grow the genomics market in India, recognized by the United Nations as the most populous country in the world with more than 1.4 billion people,” Illumina stated. “Expanding Illumina’s presence in India allows the company to collaborate and be part of a vibrant biotech ecosystem with skilled labor, strong research and development resources, and supportive government policies,” said Gretchen Weightman, Illumina’s senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa. “In our 25th anniversary year, it’s a very exciting time to be growing our physical presence in India to drive access and the further adoption of genomics to transform human health, particularly in oncology and infectious disease.” A company spokesperson confirmed Illumina employs more than 30 at the site, with hiring expected to continue over the next year. The move comes as the company is shrinking its campus footprint in both San Diego and the Bay Area, the development of which Site Selection chronicled in 2015.

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The Fox River runs through Carpentersville, Illinois.

Photo courtesy of Northern Kane County Chamber of Commerce

With all due respect to the misadventures of Wile E. Coyote and his nemesis the Road Runner, the story of the real Acme Industrial Co. is compelling in its own right. “The year 1914 is noted for two significant events in Chicago history; it was the year the Cubs first played in Wrigley Field and secondly, Acme Industrial Company started as a manufacturer of shaft seals, drill bushings, dowel pins, and liner pins,” says a history on website of the Jergens Inc. company. Most of the company’s production supported the war effort during World War II, and the company’s growth and diversification caused it to move in 1970 to the Kane County suburb of Carpentersville, located along the Fox River northwest of Schaumburg. That’s where Acme continues to grow: Per an Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit incentive agreement with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity signed in May, the company will build a 10,000-sq.-ft. expansion at the site on Maple Avenue. Acme will add 20 jobs (primarily assemblers) to its payroll of 137 in order to install new CNC machinery and equipment due to demand for its products.

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The Parker Strip in La Paz County, Arizona

Photo: Getty Images

A company that has grown from its own 1940s roots in Indiana to become the second largest egg producer in the nation with 15 facilities in seven states is growing even bigger. Becker Development and Consulting LLC and the firm’s client Rose Acre Farms held a groundbreaking ceremony in May for its second egg production farm operation in La Paz County, Arizona. Rose Acre Farms will start construction of Desert Valley Egg Farm in Parker in fall 2023, investing more than $100 million and expecting completion by 2026. Desert Valley Egg Farm will house 2.2 million cage-free laying hens and will create an additional 150 jobs, bringing Rose Acre Farms’ payroll in the county to more than 300 employees. “We started this project in August 2013 and are excited to mark this milestone today,” said Vincent (Skip) Becker, president of Becker Development and Consulting, LLC and incoming president of the Arizona Association for Economic Development, in a news release. “We are grateful to our partners including the Arizona Commerce Authority, Arizona California Railroad and APS for their support that Rose Acre Farms could grow a responsible economic development project in La Paz County. Once we had the backing of these critical partners, we knew we could start to build local support.” Located just south of Lake Havasu City along the California state line, Parker is known for the water recreation and fishing along a 17-mile-long section of the Colorado River known as the Parker Strip.