AgroPages-Monsanto to build $400 million expansion of its St. Louis R&D facility-Agricultural news

In one of the biggest corporate expansions the St. Louis region has seen in years, Monsanto said Tuesday that it would add 675 jobs and invest more than $400 million at its research facility in Chesterfield.

The plant science giant will add laboratories, greenhouses and plant growth chambers over the next three years at its Chesterfield Village Research Center, and plans to hire hundreds of scientists to help it develop new plant and seed technologies.

"This is a tremendous investment in the future of agricultural research and development in the state we proudly call home," said Jerry Steiner, Monsanto's executive vice president for sustainability and corporate affairs. "This gives our researchers what they need to get farmers the tools they need so that we all - 9 billion of us in a few decades - will be able to get the food we need."

The company plans to add 400,000 square feet of lab space, greenhouses and high-tech plant growth chambers at the research center, which it originally built in 1984 and reacquired from Pfizer in 2010. Construction is scheduled to begin in August.

The investment, as well as the creation of hundreds of high-paying jobs in the St. Louis region, will help cement Missouri's place in the burgeoning plant-science industry, said Gov. Jay Nixon.

"It's a worldwide kind of announcement from an iconic company," Nixon said. "It really amplifies St. Louis' footprint in the industry."

To drive that point home, Nixon and Steiner traveled to Chicago to break the news on the floor of the International Bio Convention, a massive annual gathering of the biotech industry. Before industry reporters, representatives of Missouri technology companies and a few dozen onlookers, Steiner touted the growing depth of the plant science industry in his company's hometown.

"St. Louis is this incredibly vibrant hub for innovation in plant sciences," he said. "We've been able to draw on that."

The company will also draw sizable state and local incentives for the expansion.

Monsanto will be eligible for $22 million in Missouri Quality Jobs tax credits if it creates all 675 promised jobs, and the Missouri Development Finance Board is considering a request for $9.5 million in Build Missouri bonds.

St. Louis County plans to offer about $22 million in tax breaks, said County Executive Charlie Dooley, who also traveled to Chicago for the announcement.

But that is a trade more than worth making, Dooley said. Monsanto will be paying good wages and bringing top-flight talent from around the world to the St. Louis region.

"This is 675 new scientists. The best and the brightest," he said. "It's a huge win for the region."

It'll also pay dividends up and down the region's biotech industry, said Donn Rubin, president of trade group BioSTL.

Coupled with a growing startup scene, research at Washington University and the Danforth Plant Science Center, and other successful Monsanto spinoffs, such news makes St. Louis an easier sell to more biotech firms at events such as this week's conference, he said.

"Ten years ago I was coming to (BIO) and I didn't have much of a story to tell," Rubin said. "Now we've got a great story to tell.

Monsanto did look at other locations, Steiner said, though he stressed that the company has had a long partnership with Missouri and St. Louis County and has had a presence at Chesterfield Village Research Center for nearly three decades.

Tami Craig Schilling, Monsanto's technology communications lead, said Tuesday that the expansion would allow researchers to collaborate more effectively under one roof.

"What's exciting for me is the ability to bring all the technology folks housed in St. Louis in one spot," she said. "We attempted that a few years ago when we acquired it from Pfizer, but we still didn't have everyone there, and the biggest reason was we didn't have enough greenhouse facilities."

Craig Schilling said the expansion would allow the company to pursue a systemic approach to research that requires scientists working in different disciplines - plant breeding, biotechnology and agronomics - to collaborate.

"We just flat-out needed more greenhouse space," she said. "Because when you're doing that kind of integrated research, you need the facilities to have that happen."

Over the last year, the company has underscored two focuses in its strategy. One new technology area, called "Integrated Farming Systems," enables farmers to use data specific to Monsanto's technologies in their fields and plant according to a "prescription" provided by the company.

The company has also emphasized its emerging "biologicals" platform, which centers on topical seed treatment products that could potentially control viruses, kill insects and provide more weed control.

Monsanto has also stressed growth in new parts of the world, particularly in Brazil and Argentina, as well as in Eastern Europe. The company is preparing to launch a new glyphosate-tolerant bean in Brazil - the first product developed specifically for an international market.