Swiss eye care products manufacturer Alcon Laboratories has a sprawling U.S. headquarters in Fort Worth, which has helped foster the life science industry in Tarrant County and beyond for years. Now that impact could grow even larger, with a report that Alcon is considering investing in a $100 million new 250,000-square-foot manufacturing facility next to its Fort Worth campus.
The report by Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jenny Rudolph cites records filed with the city of Fort Worth Friday, with the potential facility slated for a 135-acre site east of Alcon’s campus, along East Altamesa Boulevard.
Founded in Fort Worth in 1945, Alcon became a public company in 1971 and relocated its HQ to Geneva, Switzerland, in 2018, the Star-Telegram notes, aiming to “increase Alcon’s global scale and reach to better serve customers.”
The company’s Fort Worth U.S. HQ remains a major city employer with some 4,500 workers on its payroll.
Alcon continues to be a major player in the North Texas life science community. In June, when ground was broken for the beginning of construction for Texas A&M Fort Worth, Alcon’s CEO assured John Goff, a Fort Worth developer who chairs the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership, that Alcon will be involved with Texas A&M-Fort Worth. (Other companies signing on for roles or expressing interest included Lockheed Martin and Fort Worth’s Elbit America.)
According to the Star-Telegram, it’s not yet clear how many jobs could be created by Alcon’s potential Fort Worth expansion, but the newspaper notes that preliminary sketches filed with the city “show space for about 640 parking spots.”
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