VWR International moving to Worthington Steel site

In the end, the promise of an invigorating work environment - including a high-end grocery store, health club, movie theaters, and big-name retail - trumped economics for a Chester County laboratory-supply company seeking a new headquarters.

Up to $600,000 in financial incentives from Pennsylvania also helped, said John Ballbach, chairman and chief executive officer of VWR International L.L.C.

The company, with worldwide sales of more than $3.7 billion, will move 350 employees currently working out of two sites in East Goshen Township into a headquarters to be built at the former Worthington Steel plant in East Whiteland Township.

The 100-acre industrial site along Routes 202 and 29 is being redeveloped by O'Neill Properties Group L.P. into Uptown Worthington, a 1.6-million-square-foot complex of housing, shops, entertainment venues, and high-value office space. VWR expects to move late next year, Ballbach said. He declined to disclose a project price.

"The better economics were to move to Delaware," he said in an interview yesterday. "But we made the decision to go with the O'Neill property because it was a more attractive location than we could readily access in Delaware."

He said the site "would create the right kind of environment that would allow us to attract and retain employees."

VWR's decision to stay in Pennsylvania was especially welcome in a week when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. announced plans to buy rival Wyeth - with about 19,000 layoffs expected at the combined firm. Wyeth's pharmaceutical operations in Upper Providence Township and East Whiteland Township are likely to be affected.

Also, major companies nationwide this week have announced nearly 100,000 layoffs as the recession deepens.

"We've been inundated with bad news," said Tim Connor, senior director at the Chester County Economic Development Council. "To be able to hold onto a company such as this with high-paying, quality jobs is a really nice thing."

That is why when Connor got wind that VWR was scouting for a new location and that Delaware had offered the company an incentive package to lure it there, he called in Pennsylvania's Governor's Action Team.

State officials - including Gov. Rendell, the secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development, and legislators - came together to encourage VWR to stay in Pennsylvania.

The state's $600,000 opportunity grant will help the company with moving expenses, said Mark Shade, spokesman for the Department of Community and Economic Development. Shade said opportunity grants, aimed at retaining jobs in Pennsylvania, have helped save 207,089 jobs since 2003.

A tax credit of $270,000 remains on the table should VWR want to commit to creating 90 jobs over the next few years, Shade said.

Though VWR is not availing itself of that offer, Ballbach said his company was committed to growth.

The decision to move from a total of 100,000 square feet of office space to 150,000 square feet, for which VWR has entered into a 12-year lease, should send a clear message, Ballbach said: "We intend to grow, and we intend to grow substantially over the life of this lease."

Connor sweated it out through the holidays, aware that Pennsylvania's offer wasn't close to Delaware's. He would not give specifics other than to say Delaware offered five times what Pennsylvania had. Delaware officials familiar with the deal could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The difference in offers, Connor said, was the difference in the states' objectives.

"In economic development, attraction is always more valuable than retention," he said.

Ballbach finds it a frustrating distinction, but he said he was glad Pennsylvania did what it did to retain his company: "It meant a lot."