By Meredith Gardner
meredith.gardner@theindependent.com

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Independent/Scott Kingsley Becca Cummins (center) keeps watch over the bottling of electrolyte with dextrose injection manufactured at Nova-Tech near the Central Nebraska Regional Airport while colleague Ashley Scheer watches. Independent/Scott Kingsley Maria Samaniego packages electrolyte with dextrose injection at Nova-Tech in Grand Island. The company manufactues injectibles for use in animals. Click Thumbnails to View

The two businesses will be expanding in Grand Island, bringing in an estimated 65 new jobs and investing millions of dollars in capital.

Funds will be distributed pending city council approval.

Nova Tech, a manufacturer of Food and Drug Administration-registered sterile injectable products for animals, will receive $160,000 in LB840 funds to offset the costs of hiring 30 additional employees and building infrastructure at its new $7 million headquarters. The incentive funds include a $60,000 forgivable loan.

The company has tentative plans to move from its current airport industrial park location to a 50,000-square-foot spec building at the Platte Valley Industrial Park.

Agreements surrounding the move should be finalized within the next three weeks, said Marlan Ferguson, president of the Grand Island Area Economic Development Corp.

Once it receives official notice that Nova Tech is moving, the airport will advertise the space vacated in the airport industrial park, said Mike Olson, executive director of the Central Nebraska Regional Airport.

"I'm certain we can fill it," Olson said.

Nova Tech will eventually have a total of 50 employees, with the new jobs paying at an average rate of $16.28 per hour, plus full benefits.

While the company began as a sterile serum and blood collection facility, it now focuses on manufacturing sterile injectable products, including mineral and vitamin products custom manufactured for animal health distributors.

The expansion is expected to be complete within the next 18 months.

Hastings Foods, which currently has 55 employees, will expand its pork-processing operations from its Hastings facility into Grand Island.

It has plans to lease part of a building at 3321 Island Circle from Lacy Construction. Hastings Foods will use the location to process "very specialized" pork products for consumers in Japan, Ferguson said. The company will also expand its Hastings location.

Hastings Foods revised its proposal requesting $100,000 in incentives for 50 new jobs to $70,000 in forgivable loan funds for 35 new jobs. The jobs will pay an average hourly wage of $13.25. All employees are eligible for a 401(k) plan, while health insurance will be offered to office, management and maintenance staff members.

The company has plans to install $250,000 to $350,000 in equipment, and it will incur an additional $100,000 to $150,000 in start-up costs, according to its proposal.

Citizens Review Committee members raised questions about Hastings Foods' plans to lease a building instead of purchasing or building one of its own. The committee tends to give funding priority to businesses that commit to making a large capital investment.

While Ferguson acknowledged that Hastings Foods' level of investment was relatively low, he said the building would still be on the tax rolls under its owner, and its job creation and equipment purchases would provide benefits to the community.

"We're very pleased to have them," Ferguson said.