Map of Novartis plant location. Novartis building photo / Peter Carr / The Journal News
This week the Town of Ramapo and Rockland County had more than high winds and icy snow to battle. Novartis Pharmecuticals, a longtime corporate citizen in Suffern, NY, disclosed Tuesday that the company intended to shutter its huge Suffern campus before 2017.
Suffern Police Chief Clarke Osborn reportedly broke the news of the closure on his Facebook page Tuesday evening, voicing concern about what the plant closing might mean to the Ramapo Central School District via lost taxes.
The planned closing of Novartis is apparently rooted in the success of a little pale pill produced at the Suffern plant — Diovan. The popular blood pressure pill has been a top seller for Novartis, but the company lost its patent for the drug in 2012 and sales have been overtaken by generic knockoffs.
According to a report by Alexi Friedman on NJ.com, Novartis said “demand for Diovan has dropped below ‘the minimum required to operate’ the Suffern facility.
The Suffern plant employs approximately 521 people, 283 of them New Yorkers, with Novartis scheduled to begin downsizing the facility in 2014. Some current employees will be transfered to other Novartis facilities in New Jersey, where the Swiss global brand has its U.S. headquarters in Hanover. The Suffern plant closing will affect all of the facility’s employees.
Part of the Novartis exit strategy is a planned demolition of the massive campus buildings, coupled with a land sale, if the property cannot be sold before 2017. The Novartis facility is located on an enormous wooded property in Suffern between the NY Thruway and Lafayette Avenue at Hemion Road.
Novartis spokesperson Julie Masow was quoted in LoHud as saying that the company’s move was “a strategic choice made to optimize our manufacturing infrastructure” and part of the company’s global repositioning of its manufacturing and brands.
According to Ramapo Central Assistant Superintendent for Business Kelly Seibert, Novartis has contributed some $2.5 million in taxes to the district’s coffers this school year.
To local residents and municipalities, the plant closing means lost jobs and a greatly reduced tax base. The Town of Ramapo has valued the Novartis property at $90 million and Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said in LoHud that Novartis taxes account for some 10% of Suffern’s tax rolls.
Novartis has been a huge economic engine for Ramapo. Ramapo Central School Board President Craig Long said that the impact of the closing will echo throughout the whole community.
“My heart goes out to all these people, many of whom live in the community,” Long said in LoHud. “That’s the first impact we have — the disruption in people’s lives after having lost their jobs.”
According to Ramapo Central Assistant Superintendent for Business Kelly Seibert, Novartis has contributed some $2.5 million in taxes to the district’s coffers this school year. Seibert said in a statement that the loss of a major tax ratable such as Novartis will put “financial pressure on our School District as we continue to grapple with ever increasing costs, many of which are beyond ourcontrol. Compounding the adverse impact is a state tax cap that does not permit our budget to grow enough even to pay for the increases in expenses over which we have no say.”
News of the plant closing has animated the Rockland political establishment. N.Y. Senator David Carlucci stated in a Facebook post that the Novartis announcement “is very troubling news.”
“I will continue to do everything in my power,” Carlucci said, “and will work with my colleagues at the state and local level to save these jobs and help the residents of our community recover.”
Rockland County Executive Ed Day said he “hoped the site can be used by another firm in the near term.”
“Rockland County can learn from this,” Day posted on Facebook. “It’s more important than ever that we find ways to grow our economy, keep existing jobs in our county and also attract new ones, creating a better future.”
