Abbott facility in Tipp City plans $179M expansion, 123 new jobs

The expansion will allow for production of more liquid products such as PediaSure, Ensure and Glucerna. A third high-speed aseptic filling line will be installed in the project.

The port authority needed the city’s approval to pursue a project outside of Montgomery County and in Tipp City, according to a council-approved resolution.

The port authority involvement in the expansion will include use of its tax-exempt status. The port authority will enter into a lease agreement with Abbott that will allow the company to buy building materials without sales tax.

The city referred project questions to the Dayton Development Coalition, which in turn referred inquiries to Abbott’s communications department.

Friday afternoon, Abbott officials released a brief statement.

“Abbott is expanding its Tipp City nutrition facility with a new liquid manufacturing line and upgrades to meet the growing global demand for our adult nutrition products, including Ensure, Glucerna and Pedialyte,” said Brandi Martin, director of public affairs for Abbott. “We began planning for this expansion more than a year ago and appreciate the support from Tipp City and the state of Ohio.”

Abbott Laboratories filed with the city a request for tax abatement stating the company’s current 317 jobs would be joined by another 123 during the next five years.

The city notified the Tipp City Board of Education about the project plans and the request for 100 percent abatement of taxes for 15 years. The request was filed under the city Community Reinvestment Areas provisions for CRAs created before 1994.

Those provisions did not require board of education approval of the abatement. Changes in the law since 1994 require board approval of a 100 percent abatement.

The schools will benefit from added income tax, because the project is to create new employee payroll of more than $1 million, City Manager Tim Eggleston wrote in the notice to the schools.

Under state law, the city would provide the schools 50 percent of income tax receipts for all new employees during the 15-year incentive timeframe.

The proposed site plan for the expansion project will be before the Tipp City Planning Board next week.