It’s not the records room sturdy enough to withstand a tornado, the walk-in cooler large enough to chill 2,641 cases of soda pop, or the production floor clean enough to out-sanitize even the most sterile of hospital operating rooms.

No, the truly amazing part of Serologicals Corp.’s new bioscience production plant in East Hills Business Park is captured in what can’t yet be seen, said Bob Johnson, a Douglas County commissioner.

“It’s almost immeasurable, the benefits that this facility will bring,” he said as he toured the plant Wednesday morning with more than a dozen city and county officials. “There are the jobs paying above-average wages and the buying power that creates for people. That’s almost not measurable.

“But the mere presence of Serologicals here significantly enhances our ability to attract other companies in the bioscience field. And that’s the payoff.”

Wednesday’s tour gave government officials a chance to see just what they’re getting for the estimated $3.1 million in property taxes they’ll be forgiving during the next decade, part of an incentives package that helped convince the Atlanta-based company to pump $28 million into the Lawrence project.

The 44,000-square-foot plant is scheduled to open by year’s end, equipped to pump out as many as 110,000 liters of Ex-Cyte, the company’s cornerstone product. Ex-Cyte rings up annual sales of $30 million for Serologicals.

Pharmaceutical companies use the liquid — derived from serum drawn from slaughtered cattle — to speed growth of cells for use in researching and creating drugs. Ex-Cyte’s president and CEO, David Dodd, has described Ex-Cyte as “Miracle-Gro” for use by the drug industry.

Elected officials are counting on the plant to help draw new bioscience companies to Lawrence. Serologicals plans to have 40 employees at the Lawrence plant, earning average salaries of $47,000 per year.

The company is interviewing this week for production supervisors and manufacturing technicians, drawing from a skilled labor pool whose members typically are educated at Kansas University.

Robert Gowin, director of project management for Serologicals Corp., gives a presentation for Lawrence and Douglas County officials. He gave a tour Wednesday of the Lawrence facility, which is located in the East Hills Business Park. The plant will produce Ex-Cyte, a product that pharmaceutical companies will use in the development of drugs, which is pictured in the foreground.

Given their success so far — five of the plant’s current 10 employees hail from the Lawrence area — company officials are excited about the potential for expansion in the city.

Robert Gowin, director of project management, said the company bought its 12.5-acre site and designed the plant with expansion in mind. The plant eventually could triple its size, depending on market demands.

Gowin led government officials on Wednesday’s tour, as fellow employees explained the intricacies of creating Ex-Cyte by deriving a water-soluble mix of cholesterol and lipoproteins from bovine serum.

The process starts with the arrival of trucks loaded with cattle plasma — “in a refrigerated truck, just like a milk truck,” Gowin said — and ends four days later with packaging of the new amber liquid in clear, liter-sized bottles.

“This is the future of the company, for manufacturing,” Gowin said. “It’s our flagship facility.”

6News video: Sereologicals opens its doors to community leaders