Bioscience company Beckman Coulter Life Sciences will expand its footprint in Loveland with a new research and development building near the Colorado Regional Airport and almost 100 new employees.

The company’s decision came just weeks after the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade approved $1.02 million in economic incentives via job-growth tax credits.

Beckman has been in Loveland since 2018 and employs about 130 people. It’s described as a “Fortune 500 bioscience precision instruments manufacturer.”

The expansion is expected to include 85 new full-time positions in the next  five years, mostly for engineers, scientists and managers. The average salary for those positions was reported at $75,000 annually.

“We have been on a rapid growth journey in Loveland since 2018 when we started with nearly three dozen employees,” company president Greg Milosevich said in a statement. “Our strong business needs required us to ramp up quickly last year and we’re proud that despite the economic downturn in 2020, we were able to create more than 60 high-paying jobs in Loveland.”

The company also announced it has started building a $9 million office building near the Colorado Regional Airport (4510 Byrd Drive) in the Axis 25 development. It’s an industrial/flex space complex by Etkin Johnson with two existing buildings totaling almost 200,000 square feet.

Dirt started moving on that new construction months ago and the 56,000-square-foot phase 1 is expected to be completed in March. The company expects to vacate its existing space at 5600 Lindbergh Drive in Loveland at that time.

“We have been impressed with the caliber of the talent pool in the greater Loveland area along with the prime location, culture, educational opportunities, and business environment,” Milosevich said. “We’re excited to deepen our commitment to offering Coloradans a positive work environment with a commitment to diversity and inclusion, which is part of why we’re a preferred employer with a less than 10% turnover rate.”