INDIANAPOLIS — Elanco Animal Health Inc. (NYSE: ELAN), a pharmaceutical company that produces medicines and vaccinations for pets and livestock, has selected Indianapolis for its new $100 million global headquarters. Elanco is currently headquartered in Greenfield, approximately 25 miles east of Indianapolis.
The company’s new headquarters campus will be located on a 45-acre site on the southwestern side of downtown Indianapolis that formerly served as a stamping plant for General Motors. The plant closed in 2011, and developer Ambrose purchased the site with plans to build a mixed-use community, according to The Indianapolis Star. Ambrose officially canceled those plans in September 2019.
Project planning will begin immediately, with construction anticipated to last two to three years. Elanco’s new facility is expected to add as many as 570 permanent new jobs to the local economy.
The move represents an effort to cut costs while consolidating Elanco’s global footprint after the company’s August acquisition of Bayer’s animal health business. The Star reports that the acquisition was valued at roughly $6.9 billion.
Elanco’s new campus will feature a smaller, more flexible design as a result of COVID-19. The company says it envisions a more efficient campus with at least 25 percent less office space than its current headquarters.
The State of Indiana and City of Indianapolis offered the site as part of an incentive package to encourage redevelopment of the land. The incentive package also includes tax credits for the retention of over 1,600 existing jobs in Indiana, in addition to the 570 newly created positions.
“Elanco is an important asset to Indiana — a leader in our growing agbioscience sector, which is poised to grow and continue innovating,” said Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb. “We are thrilled with the direction of Elanco’s future and the transformational impact its growth will have on the agbioscience sector, the downtown Indianapolis footprint and most importantly, the lives of Hoosier workers.”
Elanco’s stock price opened at $29.54 per share on Monday, Dec. 7, up from $27.08 per share a year ago.
— Taylor Williams