Pharmaceutical giant breaks ground on $1 billion campus in Concord

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Eli Lilly will invest more than $1billion to build its second injectable product and device manufacturing facility in North Carolina, joining the $470 million state-of-the-art facility in Research Triangle Park in Durham.

It’s one of the Charlotte region’s largest economic development wins of 2022. An estimated 500 additional positions will be required during construction, which is expected to begin this year.

State and local officials gathered with Eli Lilly and Co. executives to break ground on the pharmaceutical giant’s $1 billion Concord campus, the former Philip Morris site. Eli Lilly CEO and chair David Ricks says construction will begin soon and the facility will open for production in 2024.

“The economic success that we’re seeing is not only a reflection of our great state and its people, but the Concord (and) Cabarrus County community,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. “One thing that we’ve got to be committed to do is providing them with a strong, smart, dedicated, diverse, healthy workforce.”

Eli Lilly’s facility will encompass 800,000 sq.-ft. in a five-building campus with space for logistics and packaging, a quality control laboratory and a central utility plant with advanced technology to manufacture parenteral treatments and devices.

New jobs are expected to pay an average annual wage of more than $70,000.

CEO David Ricks says the success of Eli Lilly’s first plant located in Research Triangle Park inspired the company to choose North Carolina for another facility. The Raleigh-area plant will begin producing medicines in 2023.

The goal is to “replicate” the Raleigh plant’s staffing success through establishing partnerships with nearby community colleges, UNC Charlotte and North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.

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