Source, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Katie Park

A resin manufacturer will move from its longtime headquarters in Bala Cynwyd to a bigger facility in King of Prussia, becoming one of the latest to join a bevy of life-science and pharmaceutical firms settling into an industrial region of Upper Merion Township.

Purolite Life Sciences decided to relocate 11 miles northwest of its former headquarters on Monument Road in Bala Cynwyd, where it had spent the last 36 years, citing extensive development and “lots of dust and dirt and cars” as an incentive to move, said Jack Dolan, the company’s director of purchasing.

The company is moving to a busy town. Upper Merion has added $3 billion in finished and forthcoming developments over the last nine years, according to the nonprofit King of Prussia District. The population has grown from 28,000 to 32,000 since 2014 as 3,000 housing units were built. Office vacancies, which totaled 1.2 million square feet in 2010, have fallen by half.

The King of Prussia Mall, the nation’s largest in terms of retail space, has added 893,355 square feet of retail over the last decade, reaching 7,617,151 square feet in 2019.

Purolite, which is in the process of moving to the Swedeland section of Upper Merion, employs about 35 to 40 people and spent “probably close to a million dollars, maybe less,” for its new, 12,500-square-foot office on the fourth floor at 2201 Renaissance Blvd., Dolan said.

The company, which makes substances for water purification as well as a drug that aids in the time release of other medicines, shares the Renaissance Boulevard building with Hibu, a multinational digital marketing firm for small businesses.

As availability for large office spaces dwindles in rapidly expanding communities — including Conshohocken and certain areas of King of Prussia — Swedeland has taken strides to attract businesses.

Other life-science companies — such as pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline — have moved into Upper Merion, often citing the proximity to Philadelphia, considered to be a national major life-science hub by U.S. commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE.

Purolite’s first day of business at its new headquarters will be Monday, Dolan said. The company will continue to retain its offices in Bucharest and Brasov in Romania; Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Huzhou City in China; and in the United Kingdom, among other locations.