MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2023
LG Chem buys 15 acres in Vacaville
Pharma group’s purchase
adds to area’s growth
as a biotech hub
By JEFF QUACKENBUSH
North Bay Business Journal
Part of the South Korean conglomerate
best known in the U.S. for home appliances,
smartphones and flat-panel televisions has
acquired 15 acres of industrial land in a
part of northern Solano County that local
officials have been positioning as a hub for
biomanufacturing.
LG Chem Life Sciences Innovation Center
Inc. purchased 15.04 acres of vacant land
just north of the junction of interstates
505 and 80 in Vacaville from an affiliate of
Agenus for $13.1 million, or $20.05 a square
foot, on Dec. 30, 2022, according to a city an-
nouncement Wednesday and public records.
LG Chem is the fifth biotechnology-relat-
ed venture to put down roots in Vacaville
since the city launched a concerted effort
three years ago to attract life sciences manu-
facturing companies, said Don Burrus, city
economic development director.
LG Chem has life sciences, petrochem-
icals and advanced materials business
units, and it is one of nearly three dozen
companies held by Seoul-based LG Corp.
In June 2019, LG Chem opened its life
sciences innovation center in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
The life sciences business unit has a
number of treatments in various stages
of development and regulatory approval,
including treatments for gout and cancer
as well as a vaccine for six diseases such
as polio. Key approved products on the
market include growth hormones, diabetes
medications and kidney cancer treatments.
LG Chem’s life sciences revenues last year
were 849 billion won, the currency used in
South Korea ($672 million in U.S. dollars at
year-end), out of 51.9 trillion won for the
whole operating company ($41.1 billion).
What LG Chem plans to do with its Vacav-
ille site isn’t clear. The organization couldn’t
immediately be reached for comment.
“We’ll be working with them in 2024 to
start planning what the facility looks like,”
Burrus told the Business Journal.
Vacaville in October 2020 launched its
California Biomanufacturing Center effort,
pledging about 300 acres of land eyed for
such facilities.
In July of the following year, Agenus
West, an affiliate of East Coast biotech Age-
nus, purchased 120 acres of land on Horse
Creek Road in Vaca Valley Business Park.
North Bay Business Journal 9
the East Bay.
The last land the city has positioned for
rapid biomanufacturing projects are 31
acres Pell Development has off Vaca Valley
Parkway between the Genetech campus
and Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical
Center, Burrus said. Fifteen acres is the
“sweet spot” for building such production
facilities, so that land could accommodate
two companies’ projects, he said.
The biomanufacturing sector has the po-
tential to bring 2,500 new jobs at such firms
and $2.1 billion in investment to Vacaville,
according to a city-commissioned economic
analysis completed early this year.
“Usually in economic development, it
takes a very long time to really be able to
prepare your city and to market and try
to attract businesses,” Burrus said. “But
we launched this initiative in 2020 and, in
CITY OF VACAVILLE
three short years, have been able to attract
LG Chem Life Sciences Innovation Center Inc. purchased the two parcels highlighted on this city of five companies.”
Vacaville map on Dec. 30, 2022.
The Massachusetts-based company plans In May 2022, Columbus, Ohio-based Jeff Quackenbush covers
to build a half-million-square-foot manu- Mettler-Toledo paid over $20 million for a wine, construction and real
facturing facility on 80 acres and looked for new building at 4790 Midway Drive in Va- estate. Reach him at jquacken-
buyers of the remainder. caville for expanding its production from bush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
That November, Agenus sold 15 acres to
San Diego-based Polaris Pharmaceutical,
part of a Taiwan-based company. Burrus
said the company has returned to discus-
sions with the city over its development WE CAN’T
plan since its drug is close to meeting the
Food and Drug Administration approval CONTROL
process. Polaris on its website noted it is in
late-stage trials of its Pegargiminase drug
INFLATION
for certain muscle tumors and a cancer of
the internal lining of the chest and lungs.
In June 2022, Agenus sold 22.4 acres at 4800
Horse Creek Drive to real estate developer
Transwestern Ventures for $10.4 million.
WE CAN HELP
The company has received entitlements to
build a 395,000-square-foot biotechnology
PROTECT WHAT
complex, called Axiom Point, once a tenant MATTERS MOST
is secured, Burrus said.
And in June of this year, LifeSpace Labs
opened in 10,000 square feet at 3333 Vaca
Valley Parkway, Suite 400. The "wet lab“
co-working center has space for 20 compa-
nies and is gearing up to welcome its first YOUR PARTNER THROUGH UNCERTAIN TIMES
companies, Burrus said.
This activity follows China-based RxD
Nova’s acquisition of a property at 2100
Cessna Way in 2019. RxD started production
in an existing 74,000-square-foot building
at 2010 Cessna there then sold off 27 excess
acres of land to LDK Ventures and PCCP,
which have broken ground on sites to build
warehouses, Burrus said.
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gistics Center III, offers two warehouses
totaling 427,000 square feet.