ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060061
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
A national manufacturer of generic heart and cancer drugs and children's antibiotics could announce this month its purchase of a $29 million manufacturing and distribution center in Bedford County, county sources say.
The company, which secretly has been negotiating to buy property in Forest through a Charlotte, N.C., real estate agent, will make its decision at a board of directors meeting today, according to County Administrator Bill Rolfe.
Rolfe declined to identify the company, but he said Gov. George Allen met with its executives recently in New York to discuss the purchase. He could not say whether Allen had offered the company opportunity funds to locate the expansion in Virginia.
Last month, the pharmaceutical company's real estate agent, Douglas Faris of the Binswager Co., received a permit from the county Planning Commission to change the industrial use of the Galileo Co. fiber-optic building on Perrowville Road in Forest.
Faris told the Planning Commission that the pharmaceutical manufacturer initially plans to employ 125 people at the site, which would be purchased from Galileo.
The Galileo building would be renovated and used for manufacturing generic drugs in tablet and capsule form, Faris said. The company plans to build a smaller distribution building on the property.
The project's contractor, Integrated Project Services of Lafayette Hill, Pa., would not say when construction could begin. But Faris told the planning commission that the company plans to be operating by next fall.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB