Mystery Fortune 500 Pharma Company Rumored to Be McKesson Corporation Buys Land in New York, Promises 164 New Jobs
April 30, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Orange County, N.Y. officials announced Wednesday that a major pharmaceutical distribution company, currently referred to as Blackhawk Development, acquired 37 acres of land in Hamptonburgh, N.Y. with the intention of building a major distribution center. Although the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) refers only to Blackhawk in its filings, sources in the county government indicate that Blackhawk is a front for San Francisco-based McKesson Corporation (MCK).
Blackhawk’s plans are to invest $85.2 million in a 340,000-square-foot distribution center. It may also build a second 100,000-square-foot building on the acreage. It asked for a $8.3 million property tax abatement and a sales/use tax exemption of $4.1 million in exchange for the promise of 164 jobs. The jobs are expected to pay from $38,000 to $68,000.
Although McKesson has stayed silent on the Hamptonburgh development, the company announced on April 28 that Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, Mo. had secured the company’s Strategic Supply Sourcing solution, which is the medical distribution industry’s first formulary-based procurement and value analysis suite.
The McKesson solution allows its users to search through the marketplace’s 1.2 million or more catalogue items and identify both lower priced items or substitutes, while validating contract prices and reconciling back orders.
“Lowering operating costs in today’s healthcare climate has become a huge challenge for hospitals nationwide,” said Russell Smith, vice president of Enterprise Information Solutions for McKesson Technology Solutions in a statement. “It takes strong leadership and attentive insight for an organization to leverage its supply chain as a strategic asset, and Saint Luke’s is really differentiating itself rom its competitors with forward-thinking strategies.”
McKesson ranks 15th in the Fortune 500. It is a healthcare services and information technology company. In 2014 it reported $137.6 billion in revenue and employs more than 37,000 people.
The company recently took over the #92 spot on theS&P 500 list of companies with largest market capitalization, taking the spot from Thermo Fisher Scientific . McKesson’s market cap is now $52.76 billion, while Thermo Fisher Scientific’s is now $52.74 billion. Market capitalization takes into account not only the price of company stock, but the numbers of shares that exist.
Laurie Villasuso, associate executive director of Orange County IDA, indicated that Blackhawk had closed on its Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) application and was already receiving benefits. The PILOT program lets company reduce overall property tax liabilities in exchange for relocating to sites in the county, especially if there is long-term economic development and private sector job growth in the area.