A company with roots stretching nearly 70 years and a recently formed corporation are making separate investments in Pasco County, according to the Pasco Economic Development Council.
In separate announcements last week, Phillips & Jordan, Inc., detailed its previously disclosed plans for a regional headquarters near San Antonio, and Fleda Pharmaceuticals Corp., a new pharmaceutical manufacturer, said it would create 30 jobs at a site in Odessa that is expected to open this winter.
Fleda will produce gummy vitamin supplements at its plant on Byrd Legg Drive in Odessa.
“Our team saw the need to produce something that won’t give you the typical pill fatigue that comes from taking multiple pills and vitamins every day,’’ CEO John Wang said in a statement released by the county Economic Development Council.
The company bought an existing office building and 9,600-square-foot warehouse on 12 acres for $1.1 million last year. The project’s second phase includes a 30,000-square-foot manufacturing plant , plus a research lab for generic medicines.
While Fleda Pharmaceuticals is a new company, Phillips & Jordan began 67 years ago when William “Ted” Phillips partnered with his brother-in-law, Ted Jordan, to form the company to pursue land clearing and grubbing projects.
It grew into a multi-division corporation with annual revenues of $500 million and 1,200 employees doing heavy civil and right-of-way infrastructure contracting work, including land preparation and disaster response. Its disaster work has included clean-up following the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
It established a location in Zephyrhills more than 20 years ago and maintains regional and project offices nationally. Based in Knoxville, Tenn., it plans to build a $15 million regional headquarters at the One Pasco Center business park just east of the Interstate 75 and State Road 52 interchange.
Plans call for a three-story, 47,000-square-foot Class A office building where it will move 40 employees. Phillips & Jordan will occupy two floors of the building and leave a third available as speculative space.
Bill Cronin, president/CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, called the regional headquarters a “huge project for the area,’’ including the speculative office space that he said is in high demand.
The company paid $2.2 million for 5 acres for the project in December and obtained the adjoining 2 acres to the north for $450,000 a month later. Construction on the regional headquarters is expected to begin late this year.
Company founder Phillips, who passed away last year at the age of 87, had lived with his wife, Avis Phillips, at their 4-G Ranch in Land O’ Lakes for more than 25 years.