(To read more on the industrial market, click here.)

ROCKFORD, IL-Construction began this month on the expansion 260,000-sf expansion of a packing facility for Anderson Packaging. The pharmaceutical contract packager will expand its 148,000-sf packaging facility, at 4536 Assembly Dr., and plans to hire an additional 250 employees once the expansion is completed. Anderson Packaging, a wholly owned subsidiary of the AmerisourceBergen Corp., currently has seven packaging facilities in the Rockford area with more than 900,000 sf and currently has 1,100 employees, says a spokesman for AmerisourceBergen.

The estimated $15 million expansion includes a pedestrian walkway connecting the expanded building to the administration building at 4545 Assembly Drive. Lofton and Associates is the architect for the project and the general contractor is Cord Construction.

The packaging facility at 4536 Assembly Drive was completed in 2005. "The main reason for the expansion is new contacts from (pharmaceutical) manufactures to do packaging for them," the spokesman says. "Oftentimes, they require either to be separated from the other manufacturer facilities or separate lines." With recent new contracts, the company needs additional building space, he says.