Agricultural biotech firm Calyxt Inc. has been approved for a $477,000 grant from the state’s Job Creation Fund for a new headquarters and research facility in Roseville, Minnesota. The firm expects to create over 60 new jobs over the next three years.

The grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development is contingent on the company meeting hiring and investment commitments related to the expansion project.

A subsidiary of Paris- and New York-based Cellectis SA that specializes in developing crops with healthier characteristics, such as wheat with reduced gluten and soybeans with less saturated fat, Calyxt plans to build the 35,000-square-foot facility near Mount Ridge Road and County Road C2 W.

Calyxt, which was founded in 2010, has 24 employees at its current operations in New Brighton. The company is moving to the Roseville site to accommodate growth and because it needs more space to establish outdoor research plots. A 6,000-square-foot greenhouse and 4.5 acres of test fields are planned for the new site.

“Calyxt is creating high-paying Minnesota jobs in a cutting edge industry. Their expansion is exactly what the Minnesota Job Creation Fund is designed to assist: good jobs in a growing sector,” said Lt. Governor Tina Smith. “This expansion in biotech will create a critical piece to building an economy that works for everyone, everywhere in Minnesota.”

“The new Calyxt headquarters is an exciting project that adds to the Job Creation Fund’s track record of encouraging job and investment growth in Minnesota,” said DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben. “The program has attracted nearly $600 million in outside investments in the two years since it was launched.”