Largo manufacturer plans expansion, new jobs

Formulated Solutions, a hygiene product manufacturer in Largo, plans to spend $6.6 million to expand its facility and hire new workers.

The company is adding 24,000 square feet of warehouse, office and manufacturing space, and will add 75 new jobs, according to a request for a tax exemption in Pinellas County.

The county’s Board of County Commissioners approved a resolution expressing support for Formulated Solutions as a qualified applicant for the exemption. It was one of several key votes at the commission’s Oct. 22 meeting.

Formulated Solutions is seeking an ad valorem tax exemption, an incentive that provides an exemption of up to 10 years from the real property taxes and tangible personal property taxes, when a business builds or expands its buildings or buys new equipment.

The maximum annual impact of exemption could be $31,000, county documents said, but the actual amount of exemption the company could receive remains to be negotiated, Mike Meidel, director of Pinellas County Economic Development, told commissioners.

“This is a two-step process. Once they work with the property tax collector and appraiser, we’ll come back to you with an actual document that tells the number of years and the percentage of taxes that would be exempted. It’s only on the additional taxes. They continue to pay their taxes on the current property as it stands today but a portion of the new tax roll could be exempt,” Meidel said.

Formulated Solutions, at 11775 Starkey Rd., occupies the former Smith & Nephew wound treatment production facility that closed about 10 years ago. Formulated Solutions is a contract development and manufacturing organization with about 300 employees.

Separately, Pinellas County commissioners agreed to submit two grant requests to the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, for the Tampa Bay Innovation Center and for the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.

The proposed $4 million grant for the Innovation Center would help fund part of the cost of designing, building and equipping a 45,000-square-foot state-of-the-art, purpose-built facility to house the center’s incubator. The county won a $7.5 million federal grant for the project, after it committed to a match of $4.5 million. If the request for the $4 million state grant is successful, the remaining $500,000 will come from county funds, and an additional $1.5 million to cover fixture, furniture and equipment costs would be raised from the private sector and other sources over the next three years.

The airport is requesting a $1.9 million grant from the state, to fund engineering design services for taxiway improvements. The new taxiways would provide airfield connectivity to the Airco property, a 125-acre former golf course that Pinellas County plans to develop to include office, aviation and industrial uses. The airport would provide a $210,820 match if it wins the state grant.