DENVER — A genetics medicine company has picked Sanford, North Carolina, over competing locations in California, Massachusetts and Colorado for a 209-job manufacturing facility.
Audentes Therapeutics fits the description of "Project Goldfinch," a bioscience company from California that sought $3.65 million in incentives to hire 196 people for a manufacturing center in Colorado as of August. The Office of Economic Development and International Trade, which works with the Colorado Economic Development Commission to approve incentives, told Denver Business Journal they had not been in contact with the company as of Tuesday.
Audentes Therapeutics' North Carolina site will be the second large-scale manufacturing operation for the California-based company – it also operates a facility in San Francisco. And the jobs are expected to be high-paying, with average wages of $83,900. While applying in Colorado, the average annual wage was listed as $87,385.
For what's expected to be a $109.4 million investment, North Carolina officials have approved the company, part of Astellas Pharma, for a Job Development Investment Grant worth up to $3.7 million. Lee County and the city of Sanford are offering up to $5.7 million in incentives, records show. There, it had been referred to as "Project Jupiter."
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