Bayer CropScience Breaks Ground On New Greenhouse Facility at North American and Global Seeds Headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
September 7, 2014
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (Sept. 8, 2014) – As part of its continued commitment to cultivating agriculture and bioscience solutions, Bayer CropScience today broke ground on Greenhouse 1 (GH1), its newest research and development facility at the company’s North American and global Seeds headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Executive company leadership, agriculture industry stakeholders and community representatives were on hand to commemorate construction of the new facility, a 29,500-square-foot state-of-the-art building that is part of a larger $29.6 million infrastructure expansion and land development effort.
GH1 will accommodate innovative seed trait research, providing dedicated and isolated greenhouse space for insect testing, consolidated space for nematode trait research and the capability for groundbreaking plant disease research. The structure will replace Greenhouses 3 and 4, which have served Bayer CropScience’s research and development initiatives for more than 30 years. Scheduled for completion in 2015, GH1 will accommodate potential future growth in Seeds and plant research.
“We are excited about what the construction of Greenhouse 1 means for Bayer CropScience, Research Triangle Park and the greater Triangle community,” said Jim Blome, president and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP and head of Crop Protection North America. “The research and development taking place in this facility will serve as a way to further the relationships we have with our growers, as well as leave a better world through providing advanced agriculture and bioscience solutions.”
GH1 will be the second greenhouse constructed at Bayer CropScience’s Research Triangle Park facility in recent years. In July 2012, Greenhouse 5, a 60,000-square-foot facility, was opened to support agricultural sustainability and productivity efforts surrounding broadacre crop research on soybeans, corn and more. The facility also joins a $17 million, 76,000-square-foot state-of-the-art greenhouse at the company’s Memphis, Tennessee, site, a hub for cultivating cotton and soybean solutions for the international market.
“Enabling a safe and affordable food supply is a top priority at Bayer,” said Frank Terhorst, Head of Seeds, Bayer CropScience. “The work that will be conducted in our new greenhouse will accelerate the development of novel traits that will help customers keep some of their most problematic pests at bay, enhancing their ability to raise healthy and productive crops and feed families across the globe.”
Upon completion, GH1 will include sustainable features to mirror Bayer CropScience’s commitment to environmentally responsible structures. Select features include a rainwater collection system for greenhouse plant irrigation; low-flow, sensored plumbing fixtures; occupant sensored lighting; daylight harvesting; MERV 13 filters to improve indoor air quality; an HVAC energy management system; and reflective roofing to reduce the building’s heat intake.
Development of GH1 is part of the recent operational growth in RTP and is part of an effort to develop local land purchased in December 2012. In addition to greenhouse construction, this project will add 200 parking spaces to the campus, along with a security building. All efforts have been designed to further service approximately 700 Bayer CropScience employees based in the area.
“All of our expansion efforts are a reflection of the hard work and dedication of the agriculture industry’s top minds, who we are fortunate to have at Bayer CropScience,” said Blome. “The solutions we cultivate for seeds and plant diseases will help provide a blueprint for future developments and growth that we will use to ensure that farmers are able to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding global population. We are proud to continue to make investments in a community as supportive as the Research Triangle.”
Both Greenhouse 1 in RTP and the new greenhouse in Memphis are part of Bayer CropScience’s plans to invest close to US$ 1 billion in Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) in the United States between 2013 and 2016, mainly to ramp up research and development and to expand a world-class product supply of its top crop protection brands. These expenditures are part of a global investment program Bayer CropScience started last year, with a total CAPEX for the period 2013 to 2016 of approximately US$ 3.3 billion.
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About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,819 million (2013) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 22,400 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: www.press.bayercropscience.com.
Contact:
Bayer CropScience Media Hotline, 1-877-879-6162, or
Casey Allen
Bayer CropScience
Tel: (919) 549-2607
Email: casey.allen@bayer.com
Jennifer Fair
MMI Public Relations
Tel: (919) 233-6600
Email: jennifer@mmipublicrelations.com
Find more information at www.bayercropscience.us.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
