ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997 TAG: 9703180052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON THE ROANOKE TIMES
The company, with 120 employees in Roanoke and 80 elsewhere, said it will hire 410 more here by spring 2000, about a year sooner than projected last April.
Innotech Inc. of Roanoke has locked in space in which to grow under Johnson & Johnson, the global health-care company with which it soon plans to merge.
Monday, the company agreed to a plan that would double the size of its office and production facility near Roanoke Regional Airport.
Also, Innotech said it will hire employees faster than it earlier reported. The company, with 120 employees in Roanoke and 80 elsewhere, said it will hire 410 more in Roanoke by spring 2000, about a year sooner than it projected last April. The company did not project wages for the new jobs but previously said it pays its manufacturing workers and supervisors here an average hourly wage of $13.50.
Innotech makes eyeglass lens-making machines and supplies for a global market.
The building expansion does not depend on the company's merger into Johnson & Johnson. The $21 billion giant based in New Brunswick, N.J., last month said it will buy Innotech for $13.75 a share, or $135 million. Negotiations are in the "final days," Ron Blum, Innotech's founder, chairman and chief executive, said Monday.
Blum said Innotech was working to expand before Johnson & Johnson's offer. Its manufacturing plant and headquarters at 5568 Airport Road are too small. Some workers have their offices in a second rented building nearby on Municipal Road. Although the building is nearly surrounded by vacant land, the property is at risk of flooding. Rain collects in two sinkholes there.
Fearful that the space crunch would force the company to move away, city officials announced two site improvements described as essential to Innotech's expansion at its current location. The city will lay a storm sewer pipe to drain the property and parcels around it, a project estimated to cost $350,000 to $400,000. Also, Roanoke will build a road to the entrance of the Innotech addition for $265,000.
"They said if they could not expand, they'd have to look out of the valley," said Phil Sparks, Roanoke's chief of economic development.
Innotech's landlord, A&M Enterprises L.L.C. of Roanoke, will spend $1.2 million to double the size - to 60,000 square feet - of the building it leases to Innotech. A&M plans to spend $200,000 to upgrade the building Innotech now uses. A&M is a limited liability company owned by Geoffrey Ottaway, a Roanoke investor.
Innotech signed a new 10-year lease for the expanded facility. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
"We feel a strong commitment to our community and our employees and plan to continue to grow our business in Roanoke," Blum said. The Johnson & Johnson merger is "a springboard for further expansion."
When Innotech is ready to grow again, A&M intends to be ready. A&M is buying nearly 9 acres adjoining the land that it leases to Innotech and intends to hold it for the company, said Dennis Cronk, a commercial real estate agent working with A&M.
The land belongs to the city, which will collect a $344,000 selling price and apply it to the cost of the new sewer line. Sparks said the land was left from the city's original purchase for the airport tract.
City officials said their investment in a new storm drain could also benefit other landowners. Flooding risks in the area have been a bar to some development. The largest vacant parcel in the 134-acre watershed to be served by the new line is the 12.5-acre Coulter family property.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: map - location of planned expansion. COLOR KEYWORDS: JOBCHEKby CNB