From Deseret News archives:
Fresenius incentive OK'd
Company getting $3 million tax rebate for expansion in Weber
Meeting in Monticello on Friday, the Governor's Office of Economic Development Board approved a $3 million tax-rebate incentive for the dialysis products and services company.
The company will receive the funds from new state tax revenue that the expansion would prompt. The board said the incentive is for 750 jobs that pay at least 50 percent more than the current Weber County median salary, and the company supplied information indicating it would pay an average of $34,424, which is 60 percent higher than the county median.
Fresenius also would have to commit to keep operations in Utah at least a decade.
Fresenius has about 20,000 employees in the United States, including about 1,300 at dialysis filter manufacturing operations in Ogden.
A year ago, Fresenius received a tax-rebate incentive of up to $1.5 million from the board, but the reworked incentive is designed to help the company offset land costs for an expansion of 250,000 to 500,000 square feet.
Weber School District wants full replacement cost of $6 million. Fresenius will pay $2.5 million, and Ogden would extend Redevelopment Authority funds of $3.5 million for the remainder.
North Carolina and Tennessee have offered free land and other incentives in an effort to secure the expansion.
The board indicated that new Utah wages would total more than $303 million over a 10-year period, with the expansion generating new state tax revenue of more than $17 million.
Fresenius also received a $2.1 million incentive from the Utah Industrial Assistance Fund in 2000 to create 1,350 jobs. A total of 793 jobs have been created from that incentive, so the company has received only $1.17 million of the approved amount.
Germany-based parent company Fresenius AG posted net income of 140 million euros ($179 million) in the first half of the year. Fresenius Medical Care AG said the acquisition of Renal Care Group Inc. lifted its second-quarter profit, which totaled $130 million, as sales rose to $2.17 billion.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
