Eli Lilly & Company to invest $5 billion in Goochland County

In recent years, the Virginia Partnership for Economic Development and other entities have laid the groundwork for a new generation of manufacturing facilities across the Commonwealth.

Today Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Eli Lilly & Company will build a $5 billion pharmaceutical factory at the West Creek Business Park in Goochland County.

“This new facility in Goochland County will create 650 great jobs, along with 1,800 construction jobs, and deliver some of the most advanced medicines in Lilly’s portfolio,” Youngkin said.

This is one of four such facilities the company plans to build across the United States.

Goochland County last updated a Comprehensive Plan in August 2015. The economic development chapter notes that the West Creek Business Park is in the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, created in 2002 to finance water and sewer infrastructure.

The project was secured through Virginia’s Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission which could bring a $130 million incentive to invest at least $2.148 billion and create 468 jobs. The deal announced today is in excess of that amount. Such matters are discussed in closed meetings with details not available to the public until afterward.

“The project positions Virginia as a cornerstone of America’s domestic pharmaceutical supply chain, producing both critical drug components and finished medicines,” reads the first paragraph of an information release sent out at 10:40 a.m.

Today’s announcement comes at a time when several media outlets have reported that the British firm AstraZeneca is planning to build a pharmaceutical factory in Albemarle County. Nothing has been confirmed yet, and here’s an article I wrote for C-Ville Weekly that summarizes what is known to date.

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