Washington County set to make a $26 million bet on Genentech

Commisioners figure tax break will pay for itself if biotech firm follows path of high-tech

By AmyJo Brown

The Forest Grove News-Times, Aug 30, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Washington County’s Board of Commissioners and the Hillsboro City Council last week unanimously approved a $25.95 million tax break for Genentech Inc., a San Francisco biotechnology company that plans to build a packaging facility in Hillsboro later this year.

In approving the 15-year deal on Aug. 22, Washington County officials said they are gambling their investment will pay off in a way similar to one they made with Intel Corp. more than two decades ago.

“We took a chance and invested (in Intel),” said County Commissioner Roy Rogers. “We are looking at Genentech in the same fashion.”

Indeed, expectations are high, despite the fact the company’s plans for its Hillsboro packaging facility – described by one critic as “basically a bottling facility” – are far from grandiose.

Genentech’s proposed investment in its facility is $250 million – one-one-hundredth the size of Intel’s proposed investment in its facilities during its last tax deal, structured under the same strategic investment program as the Genentech agreement.

In addition, Genentech representatives have been careful to say they have no long-term plans to expand beyond the one facility.

Yet during the two-hour public hearing held last week, both county officials and prominent business leaders repeatedly compared Genentech to Intel, which opened its first chip manufacturing plant in Aloha more than 20 years ago and since has become the state’s largest private employer with 17,000 workers, most of them in Washington County.

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