PORTAGE (WKZO-AM) — Pfizer has announced plans to expand their manufacturing and warehousing facilities in Portage, investing over $146 million in new space and technology. They are asking the city for tax abatements.
The plan is to build a $40.8 million warehousing operation to the north of their current plant on Portage Road. Also proposed is a $105.6 million dollar sterile facility that would be used to manufacture vial medicines and require four custom-built freeze dryers and cold storage areas.
While it may be a major investment in buildings and equipment, it isn’t going to generate a huge investment in manpower. Their application states the expansion will result in the retention of about 52 current jobs and the creation of 15 new positions.
Pfizer spokesman Robert Betzig said it has been their ability to invest in technology and automation that has made it possible for the Kalamazoo County operation to compete with plants in India and China.
Mayor Pete Strazdas said it’s the biggest corporate investment in Portage in decades.
But it also raises the question of whether it’s worth the loss in tax revenue. Council Member Claudette Reid says it’s not only Portage City Hall that will be sacrificing but every taxing entity that is touched by property tax, including Kalamazoo Valley Community College, the schools, the library, Metro Transit, Portage Public Safety and others.
She said the tax abatements were specifically designed to generate jobs. That was the trade-off but new approaches to manufacturing are generating far fewer but higher paying jobs.
She says they will have to weigh other benefits to the community as they consider the request for the 12-year reduction in local taxes.
There is also the argument that, while they won’t be getting all the revenue they would get if the council rejected the request, they will be getting some money that they would not be getting if Pfizer invested elsewhere.
A public hearing on the tax request is set for August 9 at the council’s next regular meeting.
