By Johanna Seltz
Global technology company Siemens broke ground on a $300 million expansion to its medical diagnostic testing plant, promising to bring up to 700 new jobs to the east Walpole facility over the next 10 years.
The company provides more than 10 billion laboratory diagnostics tests each year, and plans to expand that market, according to Michael Sen, a member of the company’s managing board.
“Walpole will play a major role in this effort,” Sen said in a press release. “That’s why we’re investing $300 million here — one of the largest single capital investments of Siemens Healthcare in the U.S. ever. We look forward to innovations from here — innovations that will benefit our customers, that will benefit Siemens, and, most of all, that will benefit patients.”
Both the state and town gave Siemens tax breaks to encourage it to build in Walpole. The construction will include space for manufacturing and research, the company said.
The facility, which currently employs more than 600 people, has been in Walpole since 1979, and last expanded in 2006.
Siemens acquired the property on Coney Street about eight years ago from Bayer.
“Our administration has reinforced our commitment to life sciences, research, and development by investing up to $500 million for strategic investments to support companies in innovation and technology,” Governor Charlie Baker said at the June 30 groundbreaking ceremony.
“Thanks to companies like Siemens, Massachusetts continues to be a global leader in the industry, and we welcome their growth and investment in Walpole to support the global healthcare market,” Baker said.
Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com.