Leading biopharma company is coming to North Hills and will hire for 300 jobs
An international biopharmaceutical company that has been busy during the COVID-19 pandemic has picked Raleigh for a new location.
Gilead Sciences will open new office spaces in the Midtown Plaza tower within Kane Realty Corp.’s North Hills district later this year.
The company, headquartered in California, will hire for 300 positions by November for the Gilead Business Services Center, which will occupy three floors the building at 305 Church at North Hills Street, Gilead spokesperson Chris Ridley told The News & Observer.
The jobs will be in human resources, finance and information technology, and hiring processes for dozens of jobs have already started, Ridley said.
Gilead is receiving nearly $10 million in economic incentives from the state over 12 years through a Job Development Investment Grant, approved by the state Economic Investment Committee on Thursday. The company is expected to contribute $1.11 billion to the state’s economy through new tax revenues over that timeframe, according to the committee.
To receive the grant, the company must meet performance and hiring goals set by the state.
“The creation of the Gilead Business Services center is an important step forward for the company, as it creates a dedicated hub for critical support services in a location that will allow us to realize certain cost and time zone advantages,” said Ridley. “The Research Triangle region is a vibrant, growing area with a large pool of talented, diverse and highly educated people.”
The new Gilead center will have new employees in its majority and is expected to be fully operational and ready for workers to move in during the third quarter of this year, pending COVID-19 restrictions, he added.
“We look forward to bringing many members of the local community into the Gilead organization, and to leveraging their unique skills and talents as we advance our mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative therapeutics for people with life-threatening diseases,” said Ridley.
Kane Realty has plans for a $1 billion addition to North Hills called the Innovation District across 33 acres that is slated to break ground later this fall. It will comprise an 18-story office tower, hundreds of apartments and a food hall. Kane Realty hopes to attract tenants in the tech and life sciences sectors.
“When the Kane Realty team developed plans for the Innovation District, we hoped to attract forward-thinking, innovative companies to North Hills,” said John Kane, CEO of Kane Realty, in a news release. “That’s exactly what we found with Gilead Sciences, a revolutionary biopharmaceutical company that is working to improve public health day in and day out. We hope Gilead employees will enjoy the opportunity to work, live, socialize and spend time outdoors at North Hills.”
Gilead Sciences produces medicinal treatment for HIV, hepatitis, cancer and COVID-19 and operates around the world. The company developed the antiviral drug remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, which is used for patients hospitalized with the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Remdesivir sales resulted in $1.5 billion in revenue in the first three months of 2021 for Gilead, during a time when virus cases and hospitalizations were at all-time highs, according to a company earnings report.
The Midtown Plaza tower is owned by Lionstone Investments, which bought it for $127 million from Kane Realty in 2018.
The tower is home to Allscripts and once had Suntrust bank operating out of it. SunTrust merged with BB&T Bank and now operates as Truist Financial. The SunTrust logo has been removed the from the tower and the office will relocate to downtown Raleigh, according to the Triangle Business Journal.
