A nanotechnology company will expand its operations in Centre County and create
60 jobs within four years, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today.
NanoHorizons Inc,
a custom nanoscale materials engineering company, has relocated its operations
to a leased facility in the Penn Eagle Business Park in Bellefonte and will
purchase new machinery and equipment. The $1.7 million project will create the
new jobs within four years and retain 20 existing positions.
The commonwealth offered NanoHorizons $975,000 for its expansion project,
which consisted mostly of an $800,000 loan from the Machinery and Equipment
Loan Fund. The offer also includes a $75,000 opportunity grant, $40,000 in job
training assistance, and $60,000 in job creation tax credits.
“We’ve made tremendous progress the past few years in building
a high-tech economy in Pennsylvania,” said Governor Rendell. “We’ve
strategically targeted our resources to leverage private investment and to strengthen
the capabilities of our already stellar institutions of advanced research and
higher education. These investments have bolstered our technological infrastructure
to help attract emerging and promising work in areas like nanotechnology, which
has tremendous application potential across a number of industries like health
care and manufacturing.
“If Pennsylvania wants to compete in the 21st century global economy,
we need to invest in quality, job-creating projects like this one. Our efforts
to make this project a reality will also pay dividends down the road as the
economy continues its recovery and private sector activity increases.”
Governor Rendell launched the Pennsylvania Initiative for Nanotechnology,
or PIN, in 2005 as a statewide strategy to bring together commonwealth agencies,
universities, businesses and economic development organizations to leverage
the state’s clusters of research, industry and workforce development assets
to make Pennsylvania a global leader in nanotechnology.
Every dollar the commonwealth has invested in PIN projects has returned more
than $13 to the state in terms of total economic impact.
NanoHorizons, founded in 2002, specializes in the developing nano material
products for biomedical applications. The company invents, designs and manufactures
advanced nanoscale silver additives that add permanent, cost-effective, and
environmentally friendly antimicrobial and performance-enhancing characteristics
to a broad variety of textile, health care, industrial and consumer products.
“The application of nanotechnology to produce durable and effective
antimicrobial protection is a rapidly expanding market,” said David Woodle,
chairman and CEO of NanoHorizons. “As a small start-up company, we face
the challenge of purchasing expensive high-tech production equipment to facilitate
our business growth. The commonwealth’s investment is critical to our
ability to obtain this specialized equipment over multiple years, allowing us
to smoothly expand our business and create new jobs for our community.”
The Governor’s Action Team, which coordinated the project, is made up
of economic development professionals who serve as a single point-of-contact
and coordination for businesses considering locating or expanding in the state.
The Centre County Industrial Development Corp. worked with the NanoHorizons
and the Governor’s Action Team to secure the commonwealth’s investment
offer.
“We are delighted that NanoHorizons has elected to expand its operation
in Bellefonte,” said John Colemen, president and CEO of the Centre County
Industrial Development Corp. “NanoHorizons is part of a growing trend
of technology-based companies that call Centre County home. The arrival of 60
good-paying jobs will have a significant impact on our local economy.”
Since Governor Rendell took office in 2003, the Governor’s Action Team
has successfully completed 1,220 projects, resulting in commitments to create
129,854 new jobs and retain 305,207 existing positions. The commonwealth has
offered more than $2.3 billion in assistance for these projects, which will
leverage more than $16.8 billion in additional investment.