Santa Fe loses biotech group to Rio Rancho

City officials were unable to secure site for Nature’s Toolbox, which will bring $30M in investments to new locale

Biotech startup Nature’s Toolbox spent its first five years at Santa Fe Community College, creating a cell-free technique of developing and quickly manufacturing large volumes of vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

Known as NTx, the company has grown to 15 employees from seven this year, and President Alex Koglin said the number could expand to 116 workers in four or five years. But that won’t happen in Santa Fe.

The company, which said it has outgrown its facilities at the community college, plans to relocate to Rio Rancho in the next few months and is preparing for a major expansion. It will bring $30 million in private investments to Rio Rancho, a figure that has mushroomed from $13 million early this year.

The growing company is also benefiting from the state’s economic development programs. The New Mexico Economic Development Department on Thursday announced it has pledged $1.75 million to NTx when the company occupies and builds out a 25,000-square-foot office and manufacturing operation at the Enchanted Hills Commerce Center.

The department will award NTx another $3.25 million to support future job growth and expansion of the facility.

The department in January also awarded NTx with $339,542 through the Job Training Incentive Program to train 12 employees, who will be paid an average wage of $38.67 per hour.

“NTx is a company that launched in New Mexico and is now expanding in the state and adding high-paying jobs with assistance from LEDA,” Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said in a news release, referring to the state’s

Local Economic Development Act grant program.

The city of Rio Rancho is the fiscal agent for a LEDA grant of up to $500,000 for NTx to support its relocation.

“New Mexico has proven to be a recognized location for excellence in biosciences,” Keyes said in the statement. “The state investment in NTx will help build new partnerships in this industry and advance these innovative technologies.”

Rich Brown, Santa Fe’s economic development director, said the city was not able to help NTx remain.

“They were unable to find a commercial property within Santa Fe to fit their needs within the window of time they needed,” Brown said. “But their growth, our existing tech companies and the attraction of SavantX to Santa Fe is a shining beacon to the national technology industry.”

Koglin arrived in New Mexico in 2009 to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, researching antibacterial drug resistance. He

and Michael Humbert started the company in April 2015 at Santa Fe Community College.

NTx had planned to move out of the college’s Trades and Advanced Technology Center in the spring, but a deal for 11,000 square feet on Bisbee Court in Santa Fe fell through.

In February, Koglin had predicted breaking ground on a larger facility there within a year or two.

Koglin said in an interview Thursday he expects the move to Rio Rancho to happen “very soon.”

“I don’t have the timing,” he added. “Two or three months would be great.”