The troubled history of the AbLabs building at 1325 Pine St. came to an end, as the Abilene (TX) City Council approved the sale of the 22,000-square-foot structure to Hardin-Simmons University. The university is paying $1.5 million, cash, for the building, and will receive an interest-free, three-year, $725,000 loan from the Development Corporation of Abilene (DCOA) that won’t have to be paid back, as long as HSU maintains an average of 75 students and five instructors.

Delivered in 2010 at a cost of more than $10 million, AbLabs was hoped to lure biotech companies with high-quality jobs to Abilene. However, the facility never lived up to expectations, and has been vacant since 2015.

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