The owner of a biotech company recently awarded incentives by the City of Hollister to stay in town said the business wasn’t asking for any privileges.
Hollister council members recently approved business expansion incentives to local biotech company Teknova. The company is looking to expand its current facilities, and is being courted to move and expand elsewhere.
One of the City of Hollister’s nine economic development principles sets targets for job creation and retention by creating opportunities for small businesses, as well as entrepreneurs, to gain support with collaboration between the public and private sectors, according to city documents.
The approved resolution offers seven business expansion incentives. One incentive directs city staff to expedite building, site, engineering and architecture reviews relating to Teknova. Another says the City of Hollister will look at the possibility of establishing an “Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District to assist with business expansion.”
In an interview with the Free Lance, Owner Ted Davis said that Teknova isn’t asking the city for any money or privileges.
“We’re just asking them to reduce disincentives to expanding here,” Davis said. “If they can apply that across the board for other companies, we can potentially attract other companies here.”
Teknova, who moved to Hollister in 2004, manufactures biotechnology used in the development of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and testing devices. The company is looking to expand the current 45,000 square-foot facility to an additional 80,000 square feet within the next two to five years.
Davis said the biotech industry is growing and that there are two factors for the growth.
“One factor is that the baby boomer demographic is moving into the last phase of its life, and people spend 90 percent of their healthcare dollars in the last 10 years of their life,” Davis said. “The other one is all of the technology that allows us, and by us I mean the industry, to create therapeutics in ways that were not available 10 years ago.”
Teknova currently employs 84 people in Hollister. Davis said 70 percent of the company’s employees are residents of San Benito County.
“The revenue that we bring into our company stays in the county,” Davis said. “It gets spent in the county, and about half of all the revenue we bring in goes directly to salaries to our employees. They use local services.”
Davis said it’s important to note that none of Teknova’s customers are located in the county. A large portion of the company’s customers are located in Boston.
“All of the money that comes into our company is coming from outside of the county, which means it’s a net influx in capital,” Davis said.
