Life sciences firm, Cygnus Technologies Inc., is moving to a new building in the Waterford Commercial Park in Leland. This two story, 45,000 square foot facility is currently under development, with construction starting this fall. Who is Cygnus Technologies Inc., and what does this mean for the Town of Leland?
Who is Cygnus Technologies Inc.?
Cygnus Technologies Inc. is part of Maravai LifeSciences and works in the manufacturing and distribution of kits that let biotech and pharmaceutical companies detect and identify impurities in host calls in biotherapeutics. Biotherapeutics are treatments involving living cells.
This company employs scientists (sometimes newly graduated) from both Wilmington and across the state. They also have some employees with PhDs that were recruited from all over the nation.
This move is a result of the firm growing and expanding, and wanting to add more employees. They are moving from Southport to Leland and will be home to 50 existing employees and up to 150 new employees over the next few years. When they moved into their Southport location in 2013, they had only about 10 employees. Maravai Life Sciences acquired Cygnus Technologies Inc. in 2016. Obviously, this company has experienced substantial growth over the past 8 years, is expecting to continue this growth in the future.
What this Means for the Town of Leland
This is great for the Town of Leland, NC! Gary Vidmar, the Economic and Community Development Director for the Town of Leland noted that Leland is now in a great position to attract other life sciences companies in the future. Leland is home to many retail and restaurant businesses (service jobs), but just now are attracting professional companies such as Cygnus Technologies Inc. Gary and others are very hopeful that this will attract other professional companies to the area as well.
Details
Here are some of the nitty gritty details of this move:
Design: Philip Humphrey with PGH Architecture
Financing: First Bank
Legal Counsel: Jeff Keeter with Block, Crouch, Keeter, Behm & Sayed LLP
Investor: CIGG (investing more than $10 million)
We are so happy to hear of this new life sciences firm moving to Leland. We look forward to the construction and opening of Cygnus Technologies Inc. and the impacts it will have on the local economy. If you are interested in moving your business, give us a call. We can review all of the available properties, no matter the type, to find the perfect place for you.