Lebanon planning commission approves Eli Lilly Medicine Foundry development plan with conditions

The Lebanon Plan Commission on a voice vote approved a development plan for Eli Lilly and Company’s Lilly Medicine Foundry campus, a proposed 200-acre advanced-manufacturing site on the southwest corner of State Road 32 and County Road 200 West.

Ben (planning staff, City of Lebanon) told commissioners the application had already passed review by the LEAP District Architectural Review Committee and that Lebanon planning staff found the submission compliant with the city’s Unified Development Ordinance. “The item on the agenda this evening is Eli Lilly and Company, and it is a development plan request for the Lilly Medicine Foundry campus,” Ben said, summarizing the project and the LEAP District review steps.

The development plan covers approximately 200 acres and shows seven connected buildings arranged in an L shape, including production suites labeled “small molecule,” “biologics” and a “hybrid” production node, a lab/administration building, and a central utility building. Matt Zirklebach, site head at the Lilly Medicine Foundry, said the overall investment announced for the company’s Indiana projects is $4.5 billion and that the Lebanon site is planned to employ about 400 Lilly staff. “The investment, right, in total as announced is 4 and a half billion dollars,” Zirklebach said. “We’ll bring 400 Lilly employees to work here.”

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