Thursday, March 28, 2024

City council approves PPD incentives

PPD's world headquarters (at left) in downtown Wilmington in this company supplied photo.
PPD’s world headquarters (at left) in downtown Wilmington in this company supplied photo.

Credited by local officials for the revitalization of downtown Wilmington’s north end, pharmaceutical research company PPD has been approved for $121,563 in performance incentives from city government.

A unanimous vote from Wilmington City Council on Wednesday (with Councilwoman Laura Padgett absent) recognized the global company, headquartered on North Front Street, for meeting about 97 percent of job creation and investment goals outlined in an agreement inked with the city and New Hanover County in 2005.

It called for PPD, seen as an economic development ripple-maker here, to invest at least $80 million into the headquarters’ development and provide 857 additional jobs, above the 1,000 the company had already planned, all by this month. Meeting all targets outlined in the agreement would make the company eligible for $125,000 annually from the city, and $300,000 annually from the county, for five years.

Short on the jobs goal by deadline this month, but well above the investment promise since the high-rise office building opened in 2007, PPD’s impact was figured at 97.25 percent, hence the $121,563 city council approved Wednesday.

The county confirmed last week it planned to write a check to PPD for $291,750 on the same formula.

Recent story: PPD, short on jobs benchmark but advanced with investments, up for cash incentive approval

PPD was short on job creation by 373 full-time equivalent positions but spent more than $30 million beyond the investment figure called for in the agreement, according to an independent analysis by the nonprofit Wilmington Business Development.

Elected city officials Wednesday night said the 97.25 percent grade this year shouldn’t be cast as a shortcoming.

“They met their requirement, at least to the 97 percent,” Councilman Kevin O’Grady said. “Even though the hiring was a little lower than they had anticipated reaching, the extra investment more than made up for it.”

Mayor Bill Saffo praised the company for stimulating downtown’s northern limit, where the office building’s neighbors now include the city-built Wilmington Convention Center and an expanded Cape Fear Community College campus. A private marina is in development just north of the convention center, and the area was slated for a minor league baseball stadium before voters squashed the idea in a bond referendum last year.

The city is also investing millions of dollars into the northern downtown extension of the Cape Fear Riverwalk, which city officials call the area’s top tourist attraction.

Related story: City tallies 33 years of riverfront improvements

“I will say that PPD is the catalyst that has created all the economic activity at the northern end of downtown,” Saffo said Wednesday.

“I just want to make sure the citizens are aware of that,” he continued, adding the incentive pay was “money well spent.”

A company profile says PPD–founded in Maryland by Fred Eshelman in July 1985 and relocated to Wilmington the following year–today employs more than 12,500 people and has offices in 46 countries. The longtime public entity returned to private status in late 2011 in a merger that put it under affiliates of The Carlyle Group, a global asset management firm, and of Hellman & Friedman, a private equity firm. The deal was valued at $3.9 billion.

The remainder of PPD’s incentive agreement with the city and county calls for the added job total to hit 1,000–for a total of 2,000 employees–at the Wilmington headquarters between October 2014 and October 2017.

Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at ben.b@hometownwilmington.com or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia

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