Monday, January 22, 2007

PharMerica chooses Louisville

PharMerica, the new company formed by a merger between the Kindred Healthcare Pharmacy Division and a major Florida competitor, has picked Louisville over Tampa for it's new corporate headquarters. The headquarters, which will provide employment for upwards of 350 people, has yet to decide on a location within the city.

Currently, the pharmacy division of Kindred Healthcare has 100 employees in downtown Louisville, and to that total another 250 positions could be added in the new company. In October 2006, when Louisville offered the new company 8 million dollars in incentives, it was forecast that the company would need 75,000 square feet of new office space and they would have a payroll of 15.5 million dollars a year for 200 new employees. That would lead to a hefty 77,500 dollar average salary for each of those new jobs.

The company is expected to have revenues of around 1.9 billion dollars in it's first year of operation, making it the 825th largest public company in America according to the Fortune 1000 list.

This news is incredibly good for Louisville. These are the types of high-paying, office jobs that cities will often compete over. In their decision to locate in Louisville, several reasons were stated: good infrastructure, good incentives, and the nearby location of Kindred Healthcare, which will help PharMerica with technology and administrative support.

Rumors from last week said they had already picked Louisville and they were looking at space out in the suburbs, and had later backed out of a deal with a new suburban office building. Here is to hoping that the new PharMerica Corporation will join the growing list of companies that call downtown Louisville home. (And help drive the 9% vacancy rate even lower!)

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