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Kurt Christian and Ernest Rollins, Herald-Times

In the midst of its $950 million sale of Cook Pharmica, Cook Group announced Tuesday its intent to expand into the former Bloomington GE Appliances plant while creating more than 500 jobs over the next 10 years.

By signing an agreement to purchase the former GE Appliances site near Cook’s world headquarters just west of Bloomington, Cook Group makes a commitment to expand its medical device business. The company’s intent to purchase is a response to what Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Group and Cook Medical, described as an immediate need for space at Cook Medical and a growing life sciences industry.

“At our headquarters, we’re running out of space. We’re pretty well boxed in,” Yonkman said, noting the current facility’s shortage of office, manufacturing and parking space. “This facility provides all three of those. It’s not the most beautiful property right now, but that is part of our history.”

Cook’s move into the former GE Appliances plant won’t
be the first time the company has breathed life into an existing, otherwise vacant space.

Cook Pharmica’s facility at 1300 S. Patterson Drive in Bloomington was formerly part of a larger RCA television manufacturing campus where the world’s first commercial color television was produced in 1954.
Pharmica’s 875,000-square-foot development and manufacturing facility now stands to be sold to New Jersey-based company Catalent.

The purchase of the GE Appliances plant is not contingent upon the sale of Cook Pharmica, Yonkman said.