Antylia Scientific proposes new division headquarters in Vernon Hills
A rapidly growing company with a global reach wants to expand its footprint in Vernon Hills and build a headquarters for one of its divisions.
Antylia Scientific, formerly known as the Cole-Parmer Instrument Co., is proposing a 120,000-square-foot building on 20 acres adjoining its warehouse/distribution center in the Continental Executive Parke.
Antylia Scientific supplies scientific instruments for research, industrial and technical uses. Its products include fluid handling systems, as well as testing and measurement instruments for the pharmaceutical, life sciences and environmental industries.
Founded in 1955, the company opened a building on 13 acres at 625 Bunker Court in Vernon Hills in 1995. The name changed this past February when Antylia Scientific was launched and Cole-Parmer became one of its brands.
Antylia has a complex corporate structure basically comprised of two operating divisions: life sciences and bioprocessing, according to Mike Whitaker, a company representative who recently presented the concept to the village board.
The new building would be the headquarters for Masterflex, a division of Antylia that specializes in the development and production of peristaltic pumps and other products.
"These are high-tech, software-driven peristaltic pumps primarily used in transferring fluids in very small quantities or very precise quantities," Whitaker said.
Masterflex deals with the entire fluid path from research to production for customers in the bioprocessing, pharma, and food and beverage industries. Vernon Hills was chosen for that use because the former Cole-Parmer is headquarters for the life sciences group, Whitaker said.
"We work with so many different products found in research, science and education," he said.
The new building would house the bioprocessing group and consolidate the Antylia family of brands into a corporate park setting, according to Whitaker. About 70 high-tech production jobs would be moved to Vernon Hills from the current production building in Barrington, he said.
Proposed uses in the new building would include office, light manufacturing, warehousing and manufacturing, according to information presented to the village. It would be placed on the property so as to allow for expansion if needed.
Antylia plans to continue acquiring complementary products and companies, according to a company release announcing the name change from Cole-Parmer.
The village board informally approved the concept, and the village staff will begin a detailed review. That will be followed by a hearing before the planning and zoning commission, which will make a recommendation to the village board on site and landscape plans and architectural details.