BCC Finalizes Agreement with Max Planck Society

July 23, 2008

The Board of County Commissioners continued its pledge to make Palm Beach County a leader in biomedical research and development with the July 22 approval of a financial incentive plan to build the U.S. headquarters of the Germany-based Max Planck Society in North County.

Under the grant agreement, the county will pay $86.926 million for construction of a 100,000-square-foot bio-imaging research facility on six acres at FAU’s Jupiter campus. The site is located adjacent to Scripps Florida. The state is providing $94 million for operations from its Innovative Incentive Fund.

In return, Max Planck promises to create 135 high-wage jobs at the new center, which will be named the Max Planck Florida Institute. It also agrees to commit 3 percent of the royalties it receives each year from the medicines it develops to educational programs in Palm Beach County over a 26-year period, beginning in 2012.

The new research facility will include a world-class bio-imaging center, laboratories, classrooms, offices and an auditorium. Hundreds of new knowledge-based jobs are expected to be created directly and indirectly by teaming with FAU and Scripps Florida. An economic model conducted by Palm Beach County estimated a financial return on investment of $1.2 billion in gross regional product, economic output and personal income over the next 20 years.

This will be the 80th research institute operated worldwide by Max Planck, which employs more than 23,000 people. The Max Planck Society was founded in 1948 and has produced 16 Nobel Prize winners.