Piper Plastics landed at the Falcon District, anchored by Falcon Field Airport. Mesa markets the area as a hub for aerospace, manufacturing and technology.

During a groundbreaking ceremony last week, Mayor John Giles complimented the company for choosing his city to build its North American Research and Development Tech Center.

“They’re going to start out with nearly 150 jobs that’ll be up over 200 very quickly,” he said. “These are high-paying, advanced jobs.”

In a news release, the city said the average hourly wage will be between $20 and $25 and Piper Plastics will invest $10 million to build the facility. Company President Randy White said about half of its business is medical.

“We manufacture, we extrude, the plastic called PEEK, which is bone replacement material for spinal surgery,” he said. “We probably will have the largest center for replacing bone with high performance polymers in the U.S.”

Operations should begin next summer.