Posted July 22, 2008 20:52

The Palm Beach County Commission approved a plan to give the Max Planck Society of Germany almost $87 million to set up an institute near Scripps Florida in Jupiter on July 22nd 2008. The Munich, Germany-based Max Planck will build a 100,000-square-foot bio-imaging facility just west of Scripps in Jupiter Abacoa..

The Palm Beach County Commission approved the contract July 22nd. Max Planck will get $39.4 million from the county this year, $15.6 million in 2011, $13.1 million in 2013, $13.4 million in 2015 and $5.3 million in 2017. All of the grant money is being financed through revenue bonds. The state of Florida came to an agreement in March with Max Planck for $94 million, and has disbursed $10 million from Florida's Innovation Incentive Fund. The addition of Max Planck will create 135 high-wage jobs at the bio-imaging center. The commission approved one charge to the proposal. Max Planck would have committed 3 percent of the royalties it receives every year from the medicines it develops to educational programs in Palm Beach County from 2018 to 2038.

Max Planck President Peter Gruss said he doubted there would be any significant royalties from its Florida operation while it's just getting started, building a permanent laboratory and hiring its first scientists. Max Planck has only two people in Florida and doesn't expect to begin meeting with architectural firms until after it completes another agreement with the county and Florida Atlantic University to sublease 6 acres of land south of Scripps Florida. Max Planck won't start hiring scientists until the end of the year or early next year, when it moves into temporary quarters being vacated by Scripps at the Florida Atlantic University campus.