Expansion of CC Cambrex plant on target for January

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com

The Cambrex expansion project is on it’s way to meeting its completion deadlines, the Charles City Area Development Corporation heard Wednesday afternoon. A 45,000-square-foot warehouse and office complex is expected to meet it’s first December deadline, moving storage into the new facility, and offices are on track to be furnished in January, Assistant Controller Becky Nixt-Bruner told the CCADC.

Cambrex’s second building project is Pharma 3 and also creates a building shell for potential growth into a Pharma 4 for future reference, Nixt-Bruner said.

“That allows us to react quicker as our business grows,” Nixt-Bruner told the board. “It’s been a year of outstanding growth for Cambrex.”

Concrete floors, sprinkler lines and other piping and framework have already been installed in the new plant, and Cambrex’s workforce population has risen steadily along with project walls. In 2014,

Cambrex Charles City had an approved 304 positions, 22 of which were open, Nixt-Bruner said.

“At the end of this year, we’ll have 373 employees –– 69 new positions in 2015,” she said. “Currently we have 354 full time employees.”

In March, the Charles City Council approved a 90 percent tax exemption for nine years for the Cambrex plant expansion, which included more than $66 million in upgrades and capital improvements. Jobs included in that expansion would exceed the required average wage of $14.93 an hour, Cambrex representatives told the council at that time.

The project was also awarded $1.5 million in tax benefits by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Cambrex has been in Charles City since 1929. The manufacturer completed a $20 million expansion in 2013, which created more than 60 new jobs.

Cambrex Charles City, Inc., a subsidiary of Cambrex Corporation of East Rutherford, N.J., manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates for both the generic and branded human pharmaceutical markets.