A company is eyeing the site of a longtime grocery store in Red Bank to house a new blood plasma donation collection center, officials said Wednesday.
ImmunoTek Bio Centers wants to buy the Save a Lot building at 2101 Dayton Blvd. and invest about $4.2 million in the location, said Scott Ramsey, the company's chief operating officer.
Ramsey said the company is in an expansion mode due to demand for plasma, particularly with the coronavirus outbreak. Its product can be used in medical formulations to help treat COVID-19 patients, he said.
"We're partnering with pharmaceutical concerns and that opens a whole new product line," he said. Ramsey said the site is expected to open in 2021.
Red Bank City Manager Tim Thornbury said ImmunoTek is looking at buying just the Save a Lot building and not the adjacent strip center.
Thornbury said the Red Bank Board of Commissioners is slated to take up approval of a special exemptions permit for the location on Tuesday. He said the city's planning commission has endorsed the permit and recommended approval.
Planners said the zoning ordinance requires a permit for any clinic operating on a site that abuts a residential district.
Kathryn Rost, a vice president for Louisiana-based ImmunoTek, said in an email that the donation center will start with 15 employees and then double that number over eight to 10 months.
She said plans are to redo the interior of the building and make aesthetic changes to the exterior.
Typically, a center will start by opening Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Rost said. Over time, the center will open seven days a week from about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., she said.
It's unknown if the Save a Lot store will relocate to another site. The owner did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.
The location has held a grocery store for decades stretching back to when it was a Kroger, said Thornbury.
"I don't know if the plan is to relocate or not," he said. "The location had been up for sale for some time."
But Thornbury said the store has been a sales tax producer over the years. He said he's hopeful the money paid to people who give blood plasma will be spent in Red Bank.
Sam Young, owner of Green's Design and Supply that's located in the adjacent strip center, said he'd like to see development along Dayton Boulevard.
He said he'd prefer to see Save a Lot relocate somewhere in Red Bank.
"It's convenient to get lunch stuff or critical business supplies," Young said.
He said that end of Dayton Boulevard nearer downtown Chattanooga and the North Shore is "ripe for opportunities for other companies to come in."
Last week, Marco's Pizza announced plans to open a new restaurant nearby in Red Bank.
ImmunoTek already has a similar plasma donation center in Cleveland, Tennessee.
The company has opened its 20 centers in the U.S. since its inception in 2013, according to its website. It said that ImmunoTek has experienced quick growth due to significant demand of the raw materials needed for the manufacturing of finished biological therapeutics such as IVIG, or intravenous immunoglobulin, which is a blood product used in treatment of patients with antibody deficiencies.
ImmunoTek said its product also is used for liver protein Albumin, Hemophilia factors and specialty proteins.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.