The Fort Bend County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a 60 percent tax incentive agreement with dietary supplement maker TexPharma LLC that will see the company build a manufacturing and office facility in Rosenberg. Under terms of the 7-year deal, TexPharma's yearly county property tax assessments for the new property will decrease by 60 percent so long as the company meets minimum employment targets that increase yearly, along with other stipulations. The agreement calls for TexPharma to employ at least 80 full-time employees at the facility in the first year of the deal, fiscal year 2017-18. That minimum will incrase to at least 300 full-time employees in the deal’s final year, FY 2023-24. Minimum employment figures include both manufacturing and administrative positions. Attorney Himesh Gandhi, also a Sugar Land City Council member, who represented TexPharma in the deal, estimated that 65 of the 80 people employed at the facility in the first year would work in manufacturing positions, with the rest in administrative capacities. TexPharma has operations in other states and employs about 140 full time and part time employees, Gandhi said. The company is also required to spend at least $16.5 million building the new facility, which will contain about 200,000 square feet of space, according to the agreement. Construction has not yet begun and must be completed by Dec. 31. The facility will be located in the Rosenberg Business Park near FM 2218 about half a mile south of Hwy. 59, and will also serve as the company’s regional headquarters, said Jack Belt, executive vice president of the Fort Bend Economic Development Council. In addition to the land on which it will build its facility, TexPharma is negotiating to buy surrounding parcels of land as well, Gandhi said. Those adjacent lots are large enough for developments of a similar size or bigger than the facility described in the tax abatement agreement, Belt said. “What they’re doing is great but what they could do is what we’re really excited about,” Belt said. “It puts a big company on a big site to give credibility to Rosenberg Business Park. This really gets the ball rolling.”