he employers of two IAMC board members came together in November when Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., based in Allentown, Pa., announced it would construct a PRISM® membrane manufacturing facility at Fountain Lakes Commerce Center in St. Charles, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. To be built on a 12-acre (5-hectare) parcel, the two-phase, 100-job project will initially feature a 98,047-sq.-ft. (9,109-sq.-m.) building coming on stream in mid-2009, followed by a 171,790-sq.-ft. (15,959-sq.-m.) building due to be on stream by early 2010.
      "Our team here in town worked diligently with the staff at Air Products to ensure all their needs were met during every stage of the process," said St. Charles Mayor Patricia M. York. "We also received a tremendous amount of support from the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association as well as the Missouri Department of Economic Development." Jim Alexander, vice president for business development for the St. Louis RCGA, is an IAMC board member.
      Air Products will continue to operate its 25-year-old facility in St. Louis, which was most recently expanded in 2007.
      "Locating near our existing facility will allow us to leverage our skilled work force and know-how to bring the facility into full production more quickly and efficiently," said George Lewis, global business manager, equipment sales at Air Products. Susan Reber, IAMC treasurer, is real estate manager for Air Products. n separate announcements in November, PepsiCo said it would invest up to $3 billion in Mexico over the next five years and $1 billion in China over the next four years. Both outlays will include spending on local R&D, manufacturing and distribution, in addition to beefed up marketing and advertising.
      In Mexico, that spending will be part of the $2 billion the company is investing to support its Sabritas and Gamesa foods businesses. The company did not further break out its investment plans. PepsiCo employs more than 40,000 in Mexico, operating 60 production centers, 22 manufacturing plants and 667 distribution centers in the country.
      The China investment plan calls for more plants in western and interior parts of the People's Republic, as well as a similar investment in local R&D. ember firm Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, committed in 2008 to corn and maize research facility projects in its home territory of Johnston, Iowa; Volga, S.D.; Bangalore, India; and Los Mochis, Mexico, in 2008, then capped the year with a major production announcement in Oregon.
      The Volga site will welcome a $3.5-million investment, and is a permanent outgrowth of the company's hybrid research efforts run since 2006 from temporary facilities in Brookings, S.D. By the fall of 2008, corn breeding programs were to have doubled and hybrid testing programs tripled, with field testing sites throughout east-central South Dakota and western Minnesota.
      "We've had remarkable growth the past two years in Brookings, allowing us to make this long-term commitment to product development for this area," said William S. Niebur, DuPont vice president, Crop Genetics Research and Development. Niebur was present two months later for the opening of the company's maize research center in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, near the port city of Topolobampo. It is the company's fourth crop genetics research facility in Mexico and 90th such center globally.
      Two months later, in September, up popped Niebur again, this time for the opening of the company's $2.5-million corn research facility in Bangalore, Pioneer Hi-Bred's fifth in the nation. "India has a lot to gain from investment in local R&D," Niebur said. "It is the second most populous country in the world, but its corn yields are just 25 percent of those in other parts of the world where corn is being actively improved."
      DuPont also recently opened the biotechnology wing of the DuPont Knowledge Center in Hyderabad, India. The Center is one of five global agricultural biotech research facilities where DuPont conducts biotech discovery work. The other research facilities are in Wilmington, Del.; Johnston, Iowa; Redwood City, Calif., and Beijing, China.
      On Nov. 6, DuPont announced its Pioneer Hi-Bred business would construct a parent seed corn production facility in Hermiston, Ore. The $15-million plant will rise on a recently purchased 40-acre (16-hectare) parcel, and should be operating by fall 2009. The plant is Pioneer's first in Oregon, and is part of an 80 percent year-over-year increase in capital spending by Pioneer.
      Steve Schroeder, real estate manager for Iowa-based Pioneer Hi-Bred, is an IAMC member.