Question 3.G: A biotech firm is considering abandoning its old plant, buil...

A biotech firm is considering abandoning its old plant, built 23 years ago, and constructing a new facility that  has 50% more square footage. The original cost of the old facility was $300,000, and its capacity in terms  of standardized production units is 250,000 units per year. The capacity of the new laboratory is to be 400,000 units per year. During the past 23 years, costs of laboratory construction have risen by an average of 5% per year. If the cost-capacity factor, based on square footage, is 0.80, what is the estimated cost of the new laboratory? (3.4)

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The construction cost of the original laboratory at the present time would be:

$300, 000(F/P, 5%, 23) = $300, 000(3.0715) = $921, 450
The scaled up cost of the larger laboratory (C), based on Equation 3-4,

C_{A} = c_{B} \left(\frac{S_{A} }{S_{B} } \right)^{X}

would be:

C = $921, 450(1.5/1.0)^{0.08}  = $1, 274, 515.

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