UCB scoops up 79 acres in Gwinnett County for $2 billion manufacturing plant

• UCB Inc. paid $14.3 million for 79 acres along what used to be known as Old Freeman Mill Road.
• The Belgium-based pharmaceutical giant plans to develop a $2 billion plant on the Gwinnett County site.
• It will be part of the planned Rowen life sciences research hub.

Belgium’s UCB Inc. has scooped up the land it needs for its transformative construction project along state Route 316.

The pharmaceutical giant paid $14.3 million for 79 acres along what used to be known as Old Freeman Mill Road, according to a Gwinnett County deed. The Rowen Foundation, the nonprofit entity tasked with creating an innovation hub between Athens and Atlanta, was the seller.

The property will be home to a 460,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, which is expected to create 330 new jobs with an average annual salary exceeding $72,000. Gov. Brian Kemp has described UCB’s upcoming $2 billion facility as “one of the largest investments in state history.”

Future phases of UCB’s growth can be supported on the site as well, said Rowen Foundation President and CEO Mason Ailstock.

“[The site] offers a large, contiguous footprint; immediate access to newly delivered infrastructure; and a highly visible position along the roundabout at the end of Rowen Parkway,” Ailstock said in a statement. “Equally important, it supports future expansion and campus-style development.”

A UCB spokesperson said the company’s strategy is to “invest ahead of demand and maintain flexibility as its biologics pipeline grows.”

The sprawling Rowen project was approved by county officials in 2020, and a $32 million infrastructure project wrapped up in 2025. A separate 10,000-square-foot facility is also planned to start soon.

But it was UCB’s decision to build a massive plant that finally put the project on the national map; a tenant of this magnitude could attract other companies and jump-start the research cluster that Rowen wants to create.

“When a global company like UCB makes a long-term commitment, it sends a clear signal to the market, helping validate the vision for Rowen and create momentum,” Ailstock said. “We continue to hear from prospective companies from around the world working in partnership with the state and Gwinnett County economic development teams.”

Colliers led the site-selection process on behalf of UCB, searching across 12 states and more than 1,200 counties. The field was quickly reduced to 62 “high-potential counties,” then to 29, according to a Colliers news release. Site visits and negotiations then commenced, and an incentives package of more than $174 million helped push the deal in Gwinnett over the finish line. It’s unclear if any of the incentives were used for the purchase.

UCB, which maintains a North American headquarters in Smyrna, preferred to own the land rather than enter into a ground lease.

“Rowen is designed to be flexible in how we structure deals because we’re competing for global companies with very different needs,” Ailstock said. “In this case, UCB preferred to purchase the land, and we were able to accommodate that.”

There are still roughly 1,900 acres available for future development, some of which the Rowen Foundation expects to sell off and some of which will be leased.

The Rowen team will still be involved in the buildout of UCB’s plant, including through a design review board that will evaluate building plans and workforce training initiatives.

The facility will take at least six years to construct.