Gateway Plans New $82M Urban Campus

Gateway Community and Technical College in Kentucky has released its plans for a new Urban Campus in downtown Covington, a project estimated to cost $81.5 million over the next decade. Already being called a "game-changer", the prospect of thousands of students, plus teachers and staff, flooding downtown streets makes the Gateway urban campus the city's most important development project since Corporex Cos. developed the RiverCenter office complex in the early 1990s.

"Today's announcement has been 10 years in the making. It is the culmination of many hours of collaboration, negotiation, discussion, and visioning by dozens and dozens of community leaders, government officials, concerned citizens, Gateway's board of directors, faculty, staff and students, the Gateway Foundation board, and our planning consultants,” said Gateway President and CEO Ed Hughes. "We were encouraged early by the community to think big."

It's expected that the new campus, which will be created primarily in a six-block area from 4th to 7th Streets and from Greenup to Madison Avenue in Covington, will serve an additional 2,500 urban students per year by 2014.

"The increase in students, faculty and staff will boost the local economy with more jobs, retail and restaurants. It will invigorate Covington's Madison Avenue corridor and restore it to the vibrant district it once was," said Covington Mayor Chuck Scheper.

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New $1B Manufacturing Plant Build in GA

Baxter International, a global leader in biologic medical therapies, announced this week that it will build a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Covington, Georgia to support growth of its plasma-based treatments. The new facility is expected to create more than 1,500 full-time employment positions in Georgia, and over 500 more across multiple U.S. locations. The new facility will support plasma fractionation, purification, fill-finish and include a testing lab.

"This investment demonstrates our long-term commitment to patients around the world who rely on our plasma-based therapies," said Robert L. Parkinson, Jr., Baxter's chairman and chief executive officer.

According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution state incentives totaling $78 million helped with the decision to locate in Georgia. Furthermore the company could qualify for an estimated $32 million in savings from a sales tax exemption on machinery and equipment plus construction materials included in a new tax law, according to the paper. Another $13.75 million grant comes from the OneGeorgia discretionary fund, as reported by IndustryWeek.

"Baxter's decision to come to Georgia marks a new era in the growth of our biosciences industry and will have far-reaching impact on our economy," said Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. "We are honored to welcome this flagship company to Georgia and proud that our state's vast resources for the biomedical field will assist the company with the groundbreaking medical advances it is renowned for. Baxter's commitment to Georgia moves us closer to making Georgia the No. 1 state in which to do

"We would like to thank Governor Nathan Deal and the many other officials involved in the site selection process, and we look forward to becoming part of the Georgia community," said Ludwig Hantson, Ph.D., president of Baxter's BioScience business.

Baxter, unlike some other health-care companies, has seen consistent sales and profit growth in recent quarters as the medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies it makes treat serious medical problems that can't be ignored, such as cancer, immune disorders and trauma according to a Wall Street Journal report.

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