The state made another investment Thursday to bolster its life-sciences industry, extending a $3.4 million tax-rebate incentive to medical technology company Stryker, which is expanding its neurotechnology training and manufacturing center at 4870 S. 2100 South in Salt Lake City.
Based in Kalamazoo, Mich., Stryker expects to hire 540 people and to spend $100 million on the expansion over the next decade. With these workers are required to earn at least 110 percent of the average Salt Lake County wage, the hirings should result in new wages of $192 million plus $17 million in additional state tax revenue.
“World-class companies like Stryker elevate Utah’s life-science industry in the global market,” said Val Hale, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, whose board approved the post-performance tax incentive Thursday.
Added Theresa Foxley, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah: “Stryker has cemented itself as a leader in global innovation and medical device manufacturing. With their continued expansion in Utah, Stryker adds to an already recognized and established life sciences and medical device manufacturing hub.”
Stryker has operated in Utah since 2011. Since then, said Mark Paul, president of the company’s neurovascular division, “we’ve benefited from the talented workforce and first-rate education, research and healthcare facilities in the area.”
In January, the company opened a 137,000-square-foot facility that has a fully integrated operating room with booms, surgical lights and a high-definition audio and imaging system that enables physicians in an operating room to communicate with colleagues anywhere in the world.
Manufacturing of stroke-care technology products is scheduled to start this year along with physician training.
This new state funding will help the company expand the facility and add to Stryker’s product portfolio, Paul said, including new equipment for orthopedic, spinal and endoscopic treatments.
Founded by medical doctor Homer Stryker in 1946 and now traded on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker SYK, the company had $11.3 billion in annual sales last year, three quarters of which were in the United States. It has 33,000 employees worldwide at 43 manufacturing and research and development sites.