3M Co.'s decision this year to sell its drug-delivery business will bring a new headquarters to Woodbury.
Construction is expected to begin by the end of the month on the new building for Kindeva Drug Delivery, the former 3M unit's new name. The 136,000-square-foot building, expected to cost more than $15 million, should be completed by mid-2021.
Ryan Cos. is developing the property, which is now farmland and located just south of I-94 near Hudson Road and Settlers Ridge Parkway. HGA is the architect.
Kindeva will be the lone tenant in the 1 ½-story structure. The site will function as a corporate headquarters and a high-tech research and development lab with 200 scientists working on various drugs and drug-delivery products, said Kindeva CEO Aaron Mann during an interview.
The building, which won approval from the Woodbury City Council in September, is the first of several buildings Ryan Cos. eventually plans for the site.
3M sold its drug-delivery unit to Altaris Capital Partners for $650 million in May. 3M retains a 17% stake in the firm. Since May, Kindeva, which specializes in micro-needles, inhalers and transdermal drug patches, has seen its employment swell from 900 to more than 1,000 workers, Mann said. Of those, 200 are still on 3M's Maplewood campus but will move to Woodbury as soon as construction finishes there.
Separately, Kindeva's other workers are spread across a manufacturing plant in Northridge, Calif.; two factories and a lab in England; and a small pilot manufacturing site on Water Street in St. Paul.
The company makes 30 key drug and drug-delivery products, some of which are being tested in COVID-19-related clinical trials for potential therapies and vaccines. As of May, the business had about $380 million in annual revenue and dozens of customers, including the asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) medicine maker Mylan Labs and micro-needle customer Radius Health.
With its focus on medical products and research, the new construction project in Woodbury has been warmly received by city officials and caught the eye of state officials at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
DEED is evaluating three grant or loan requests submitted by Kindeva and the city. The two have requested a $350,000 state Job Creation Fund grant, $475,000 in public infrastructure assistance and $515,000 in aid from the Minnesota Investment Fund.
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725
