LifeNet Health to expand global headquarters in Virginia Beach

LifeNet Health, a major organ procurement organization and tissue processor, plans to invest $12.25 million to expand its global headquarters in Virginia Beach.

According to the city, LifeNet will expand in three additional locations at its current campus in the VABeachBio corridor while adding 321 jobs – moves that would make it one of the top employers in Virginia Beach.

LifeNet Health now has four locations in the corridor off Princess Anne Road. The expansion will add an 18,000-square-foot research and development facility, 20,000 square feet of office space and a 100,000-square-foot warehouse across three campuses bringing LifeNet Health’s total investment in Virginia Beach to more than $70 million.

According to the city, demand for the company’s products and technologies is driving the need for additional research and production space. Virginia Beach said in a press release that Virginia competed against Florida, North Carolina and Washington for the project.

LifeNet Health celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. It specializes in transplant solutions, from organ procurement to bio-implants and cellular therapies.

Monday's announcement about the expansion was made by Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms at LifeNet Heath’s headquarters.

“ … LifeNet Health has led the way in health care and bio sciences for more than three decades,” Sessoms said in a statement.  “Adding another 321 jobs provides a major boost, not just to the company, but to our local economy and our continuing efforts to establish Virginia Beach as a national center for bio sciences.”

McAuliffe described LifeNet “as an important driver of the Commonwealth’s growing biotechnology field … [It] has helped anchor the foundation for the robust Princess Anne Commons biomedical cluster in Virginia Beach.”

In addition to LifeNet, the VABeachBio corridor is home to Sentara Princess Anne Hospital, Operation Smile, Tidewater Community College, the VABeachBio Accelerator, the Virginia Beach Advanced Technology Center, the governor’s STEM & Technology Academy and the ODU/Norfolk State Virginia Beach Higher Education Center.

“We continue to pioneer state-of-the-art technologies that are in the forefront of regenerative medicine, touching hundreds of thousands of lives around the world,” LifeNet Health President CEO Rony Thomas said in a statement.  “We are proud to have the support of the commonwealth and the city in this strategic expansion, which will establish Virginia Beach as a bioscience leader.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the city to secure the project for Virginia. McAuliffe approved a $700,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund.

The Virginia Beach Development Authority is scheduled to approve a matching $700,000 Economic Development Investment Program grant based on the capital investment and jobs created. Additionally, a $288,900 Virginia Jobs Investment Program grant was awarded based on job creation bringing the total economic development incentive package to $1.6 million.

LifeNet Health opened its headquarters in Virginia Beach in 1982. To help meet the growing demand for tissue, it established a presence in the Pacific Northwest in 2012. It also opened a European headquarters in Austria in 2017 to offer education and training around the use of allograft surgical solutions.