Prime Therapeutics Expansion Will Bring 300 Jobs to Area

At a press conference Tuesday morning, Eagan-based Prime Therapeutics announced that it will be leasing the former Buffets Inc. building—part of a significant business expansion that is expected to bring 300 new jobs to the area.

Prime, a pharmacy benefit management company, is working with the Dakota County Community Development Agency and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to finalize a $500,000 forgivable loan for the expansion. Under the terms of the loan, the company must add all 300 jobs within the next two years.

Prime has already entered into a lease agreement for the Buffets Inc. building, a 100,000 square foot facility at 1460 Buffet Way in Eagan, according to Prime Therapeutics President Eric Elliott. The company plans to renovate and occupy the space in 2012. Prime chose the building because of its proximity to Prime's current headquarters, the size of the facility and the quality of the building, Elliott said at the press conference—which was held at the

The expansion was driven by the company's fast growth, Elliott said. In 2011 alone, Prime added 300 jobs to its operations in Minnesota, and currently employs more than 1,100 statewide. Prime Therapeutics was launched in 1987 as the pharmacy department for Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and currently has operations in nine cities across the country.

Many of the 300 jobs the company plans to add as part of the expansion will be information technology and business analyst jobs, Elliott said during the conference. The fiscal agent for the loan will be the Dakota County CDA, though funding for the loan will be drawn from the DEED's Minnesota Investment Fund.

"We are excited to strengthen our foothold in Minnesota and create new professional jobs for Eagan, Dakota County and for Prime," Elliott wrote in a press release. "Since our inception, our home base has been in Eagan, and we have always been impressed with, and grateful for, the level of cooperation it has shown us over the years."

"This continues the positive news for Eagan and the Twin Cities region," Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire wrote in the press release.