NEW: Jupiter agrees to incentives that may top $1M to bring Beacon Pharmaceutical Jupiter to town
Correction: An earlier version of this article misattributed a quote from Councilman Wayne Posner.
JUPITER — Nearly a year after announcing the deal, officials voted Tuesday to move forward with the incentives used to attract Beacon Pharmaceutical Jupiter to build a bioscience incubator in town.
Beacon will rent the town’s 9-acre property just west of Florida’s Turnpike on Indiantown Road through a lease-to-own agreement that Town Council members unanimously approved Tuesday night. They also unanimously authorized a pact in which Jupiter agrees to pay Beacon for the jobs it creates — up to $600,000 over 10 years — in addition to a $500,000 payment when the town issues Beacon its certificate of occupancy.
Beacon Pharmaceutical Jupiter, an affiliate of investment company Beacon Capital, has pledged to build a 150,000 square-foot research, development and production facility where it will work with bioscience companies developing options for disease treatment and prevention.
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Research areas are expected to cover immunology, oncology, aging, epigenetics, as well as rare and nervous system-related diseases.
The company’s executive chairwoman, Nancy Torres Kaufman, told council members she hopes to open the facility sometime in 2021. Beacon has already identified 38 companies to work with, she said, and it is now looking for temporary space in the area to start work.
“The incentives were a key component in attracting our company to Jupiter,” she said after the meeting.
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The lease-to-own deal and job creation payments have been publicly discussed since last winter, while the $500,000 payment tied to the certificate of occupancy was a newer idea that came out of the last few months of negotiation, Town Manager Matt Benoit said.
It’s designed to offset some of Beacon’s “regulatory-type costs,” such as permits and impact fees, Benoit said.
Despite the incentives, town officials still expect a hefty financial haul from the project — to the tune of $1.3 million over five years of rent payments and property taxes, according to a memo from Benoit. Beacon will be responsible for tax payments even while the town continues to own the land.
“Whatever we’re doing in incentives really comes back to us twofold in tax revenue and things like that,” Councilman Wayne Posner said Tuesday night.
The rent payments are tied to the land’s worth, so Beacon is expected to pay for the property’s fair market appraised value in payments spread out over 30 years. It will have rolling opportunities to purchase the land outright.
Another incentive, a $500,000 loan guarantee, was authorized by council members during the summer.
Those officials then voted to approve Beacon’s site plan in October. Beacon’s incubator has been designed by Miami-based architecture firm Kobi Karp. It’s expected to be built out with lab space across three floors.
“This is a great gain for the town,” Vice Mayor Jim Kuretski said.
Jupiter acquired the future Beacon property for $10 in 2015 from DiVosta Homes as a public benefit tied to the development of the nearby subdivision off Indiantown Road now called Sonoma Isles.