CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The facility will be way up in northern Albemarle, but Charlottesville city leaders attended Thursday’s AstraZeneca groundbreaking excited about the opportunities it will generate for the city. City Manager Sam Sanders and Mayor JuanDiego Wade sat with a piqued interest right behind Governor Youngkin, Dr. Oz from the Trump Administration, and AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot.

“We are really excited about this,” Wade told Cville Right Now.

“Big projects like this, it’s going to be the largest plant in the whole world,” Wade exclaimed.

“It’s going to create a lot of opportunities for jobs for high school students, for training workforce for the community college, and all of that has an impact on the City of Charlottesville, so I’m excited.”

The project is expected to bring some 3000 construction jobs to the community as it’s built starting immediately with a completion in 2029 or 2030. After that, AstraZeneca expected to employ some 600 scientists and support workers there. Mayor Wade has a particular expertise in workforce training.

“I just retired as a career counselor doing workforce readiness, and I see a lot of opportunities in companies like this for the City of Charlottesville and this whole community for outside jobs it can create,” Wade said. “It could be everything from people providing services for them, to grocery stores, to catering, to providing all types of services for them, so we’re excited about it.”