One of Delaware's most innovative businesses is continuing to grow.

Incyte, a Wilmington-area pharmaceutical company, is preparing to expand its Augustine Cut-Off headquarters. Two years ago, the company opened a 154,000-square-foot office building next to the former John Wanamaker building, which has served as the company's home since 2014, and it's full.

The latest expansion, consisting of a six-story lab and office building and a two-story parking deck, is supposed to bring all of Incyte's employees to one campus. Some of Incyte's roughly 700 employees work in leased spaces in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington.

Since 2014, the company has consistently outgrown its buildings, said Paula Swain, Incyte's head of human resources of facilities.

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"We really feel that we do our best work when we are co-located," Swain said. "We feel it really helps with collaboration."

New Castle County Council approved the expansion project Tuesday. Swain expects construction to begin in October and end in about two years.

About three quarters of Incyte's total revenue comes from Jakafi, a drug that is used to treat rare blood cancers, including polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis.

The company, which moved to Delaware in 2003 from Palo Alto, California, has steadily grown since Jakafi was first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011. In 2016, Incyte brought in more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time. That number is expected to exceed 1.6 billion in 2019, according to second quarter projections.

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The expansion will add almost 200,000 square feet of office and lab space to the west of the existing buildings near Augustine Cut-Off and West 18th Street. About 3½ stories will be laboratories and 2½ will be office space.

The new space will be connected by a bridge to the Wanamaker building with a matching brick exterior. The labs need solid walls rather than the glossy glass of the 2017 building, Swain said.

Incyte purchased the land for its latest building around the time of their previous expansion. The new building and parking garage will take the place of a radiation center, an auto body shop and a medical plaza with doctor offices.

Incyte leased space in DuPont Co.'s Experimental Station near Alapocas for more than a decade before moving into the Wanamaker building.

A pioneer of the department store movement, John Wanamaker opened the building in 1950. Louis Capano Jr. purchased it in 1988, and he and his son Louis Capano III spent $35 million renovating it.

Andersen Consulting, a management and technology consulting firm, leased the space, moving out in 2008.

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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com or at (302) 324-2267. Follow on Twitter @holveck_brandon.