O-I plans $35 million R&D facility in Perrysburg

Owens-Illinois Inc. will spend $35 million to build a new research and development facility at its Perrysburg headquarters, the company announced today.

The 18,000-square-foot facility will be funded in part by a $3 million grant from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission, which was announced in June. At the time, Owens-Illinois said the grant would help O-I create 45 jobs with an average salary of $75,000 a year, plus 55 contract jobs that could lead to full-time employment.

The container glass firm said Wednesday that the centerpiece of the facility will be a research and development center capable of melting and forming glass in a small-scale manufacturing environment. The new facility "will help advance new concepts and qualify emerging technologies that could revolutionize glass melting and forming," the company said in a statement.

The company plans to break ground on the new facility before the end of the year and expects it to be completed in late 2013.

The company said it has already added more than 25,000 square feet of research and development laboratories since 2008, at a cost of more than $30 million.