Up, up and away: Topping-off ceremony for WuXi Biologics building in Worcester

Cyrus Moulton, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

WORCESTER — WuXi Biologics held a topping-off ceremony for its pharmaceutical manufacturing plant at The Reactory biomanufacturing park on Belmont Street Tuesday morning, heralding “the next generation of innovative manufacturing” in Worcester.

“We are proud to see the progress and be part of the event today,” Weichang Zhou, WuXi’s chief technology officer and executive vice president, said in a video message from China. “We are honored to be part of the Worcester community and to help bring the next generation of innovative manufacturing to the city.” 

WuXi originally planned to build a two-story, 107,000-square-foot building as the first building in The Reactory, but essentially doubled the size of its plans in April 2021 so it could include late-stage clinical production and commercial manufacturing for increasing numbers of clients who wanted products made in the United States. 

The facility is expected to bring 250 new jobs to the area and is aided by a 20-year tax increment financing plan that would save the company roughly $11.5 million in property taxes over the life of the plan. The facility is scheduled to open in 2024.

Back on tax rolls

But the $60 million project also returns the property — the former Worcester State Hospital — to the tax rolls to contribute $20.7 million in new tax revenue over the period of the TIF. 

“This is one of those projects that’s a win no matter what way you look at it,” Acting City Manager Eric D. Batista said, noting the new taxes and jobs that will result from the project. “It is a perfect complement to the growing life sciences environment in Worcester.”

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, whom Worcester Business Development Corporation President Craig Blais credited as the “founder” of The Reactory, said the project was an example of “how government should work.

“Today we come together, all of us, believing in the promise of the work, and discovery, and talent and the effort that will take place on the floors and laboratories in this building, that will unlock discoveries and developments and be able to manufacture at an accelerated rate the solutions that will help improve the quality of life for people here in this country and around the globe,” Polito said. “That promise, that opportunity, is right here in the city of Worcester.”