FLORIDA MEDICAL FIRM BUYS $5M SITE IN VANDALIA

AxoGen, which has Dayton facility, plans nerve graft work in Vandalia.

A Florida medical manufacturer has purchased a Vandalia building and land for $5 million as a future home for nerve graft work.

AxoGen Inc. of Alachua, Fla., bought the 2,400-square-foot building at 913 Industrial Park, Montgomery County property records show. “ARC CRVANOH001 LLC” is identified as the seller in the sale recorded Aug. 3.

The site in the Scholz Industrial Park had been a property of the former Crown Solutions, now called Veolia Water, which has its main local offices at 945 Brown School Road, also in Vandalia.

“The company completed the acquisition of a facility near our current leased facility in Dayton, Ohio, where we will transition our existing processing to support our longterm capacity needs,” AxoGen Inc. said in a release earlier this month.

The company has had a presence in Dayton for about three years, working in the Community Blood Center in downtown Dayton, where a number of AxoGen employees lease space, said Diane Wilson, the center’s chief operating officer.

AxoGen is using the same architect for its Vandalia building that the Tissue Services Center has hired for its own expansion in Kettering, Tom Hesse of John Poe Architects in Dayton.

AxoGen employees use four clean rooms in the blood center, Wilson said.

“They’re growing by leaps and bounds,” she said.

AxoGen reported second quarter 2018 revenue of $20.6 million, up 36 percent compared to $15.2 million in the second quarter of 2017.

AxoGen representatives did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. But in an Aug. 1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company noted that the Vandalia site is close to its leased blood center operation in Dayton, where it processes nerve grafts and soft tissue membranes.

The Vandalia purchase is “comprised of a 70,000-square-foot building on approximately 8.6 acres of land,” AxoGen said in the SEC filing. “It is expected that renovations will be completed within 24 months of the closing to provide a new processing facility that can be included in the company’s biologics license application for the Avance nerve graft.”

The company describes itself as a “global leader in developing and marketing innovative surgical solutions for peripheral nerves.” It values the market for repair and protection of peripheral nerves at more than $2.2 billion.