Syngenta isn’t going anywhere, which is good news for Greensboro.
Instead of moving to a new location, Syngenta announced on Tuesday, March 16 that it would be staying right where it is on Swing Road and invest an estimated $68 million in building new facilities on its current campus.
Syngenta announced that it plans to build a more than 100,000-square-foot office building to connect with its existing laboratory facility on the north side of the 70-acre campus. The laboratory facility will also be completely renovated.
Construction is expected to start later this year and will take about three years to complete. The new workspaces will support an estimated 650 employees and 100 contract workers.
The large campus with 17 buildings on Swing Road was established in the 1960s as Ciba-Geigy, which became Novartis, which then merged into Syngenta.
In January 2020, the Greensboro City Council approved a $1.7 million incentive to keep Syngenta in Greensboro. The average wage of the 650 employees at Syngenta is $107,000 a year. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners approved an incentive on the same day of up to $2 million and the North Carolina Department of Commerce also offered Syngenta incentives to stay in Greensboro.
Syngenta is one of the world’s leading agricultural companies.
In a press release, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, “For as long as I can remember, the Syngenta facility – once Ciba-Geigy – has stood at one of the main entrances to Greensboro, a showplace of our community’s agricultural science and technology abilities. Simply put, the company and its employees are an essential part of the fabric that makes this community so special. My fellow City Councilmembers and I placed the highest priority on making sure these jobs remained here. And we are so thrilled that Syngenta has decided to build its new state-of-the-art office and research facility here.”
I believe history will reveal this property was first built as the Research and Development location for Burlington Industries before Cuba-Geogy bought the property in the 70’s.
I believe you are correct. The IT department was across the interstate in that stately building that was sort of a French Tudor look for the modern car dealerships. There was a pipe for all the computer cables that were needed pre internet, fiber days we have now.
What a joke! A company that size with deep rooted federal contracts & grants isn’t going or staying anywhere because of Nancy’s hospitality. Political smoke has begun, they’ll start putting up mirrors to enhance the illusions next week. Syngenta already has convenient access to air, rail, & ground transportation, room for growth on-site, and incentives and COVID funds pouring in from everywhere. Why would they move if everything comes to them?
Maybe the employees should pay the $1.7 million to keep their avg $107,000 jobs! Not the general population of GSO that make much less per year?! Why is this of benefit to the taxpayers? Just asking.
I have recently started looking into the history of the site and Burlington Industries appears to be associate it with its beginnings… I am excited about uncovering more information on it.