Afton Scientific to invest $200 million in expansion of Avon Court 

An Albemarle County company that manufactures a wide range of pharmaceuticals has announced it will expand its operations on Avon Court using resources from the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

“Afton Scientific started in our community 30 years ago and we couldn’t be more proud of this business, of this industry being in our community today,” said Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson.

Governor Glenn Youngkin was on hand on October 2 to announce more of the details of the announcement. 

“Afton is making a giant statement in its future,” Youngkin said. “Announcing an investment of over $200 million and a commitment to add at least 200 high paying great jobs to this extraordinary site will trailblaze both a future and an opportunity that is unparalleled,” Youngkin said. 

The company’s technology can fill pills and other drug delivery mechanisms in an aseptic manner which means without risk of cross contamination. 

Earlier this year, the company received a “majority investment” from Arlington Capital Partners which will allow it to invest in new equipment as well as an expansion of their physical space on Avon Court.   

“This company really does almost perfectly reflect all of those attributes that I believe makes Virginia so successful,” Youngkin said. “ And therefore, the company has adopted, I think, the appropriate motto, your success is our success. And that is reflective of a belief in partnership, a belief in winning together, a belief that, in fact, we don’t win unless everybody wins.”

As part of the expansion, Youngkin approved a grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to help Albemarle County work with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Afton Scientific will utilize the VEDP’s Talent Accelerator Program to help hire skilled workers. 

Richardson said the biotechnology sector is one of Albemarle’s key industries and is one that can allow for economic development to occur while managing the county’s growth. 

“Quality of life and strategic growth is a part of our strategic plan,” Richardson said. “That means that we do measured growth, we are sustainable and we focus on high quality, quality creation jobs.”

Samuel Miller District Supervisor Jim Andrews said the announcement is an example of how Albemarle has been been intentional about how it approaches economic development. 

“The success here showcases how truly we become a vertex in Virginia’s research triangle, which promotes biotech innovation, supporting local companies with outside investment,” said Andrews, who is also this year’s chair of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.  

Caren Merrick is Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade and said she’s been traveling to Charlottesville more often due to the activity in the biotech sector.

“We are doubling down on what the life sciences community is doing here in Charlottesville,” Merrick said. “In fact, in Charlottesville, just in the last year, we had more than $400 million of federal research grants. We’ve also had more than $ 90 million in equity investments in our startups. 

At the end of his comments, Governor Youngkin presented a Virginia flag to Tom Thorpe, the founder and CEO of Afton Scientific. He said the expansion project will take further work to go through Albemarle County’s land use process. 

“There’s a lot of work to get this potentially 400,000 square foot facility working,” Thorpe said.

Afton Scientific paid $3 million in March 2008 for their existing location at 2020 Avon Court just south of the Charlottesville border. On August 24, the company bought a 6.78 acre site for $4.25 million. 

“It was owned by Coran Capshaw, and we approached him earlier in the year saying we really want to think about expanding our property,” Capshaw said. 

Thorpe said Capshaw’s Riverbend Development had ideas for what it wanted to build on the site. 

“And Coran said what do you plan on doing with it? We want to expand and make some of our manufacturing, to make sterile medicines, put in clean rooms and create really, really great jobs. And he goes, well, that’s something I’m really interested in. That’s a worthy purpose that I would set aside our interests and sell you guys the property to see that opportunity for the central Virginia workforce.” 

For those interested in tracking economic development in Albemarle County, the closed-door negotiations for this initiative have gone by the name Project Olympian. 

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