A new personal protection equipment plant is opening soon in Rockland County with plans to hire 100 new employees.

A manufacturer called NY Critical Materials, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Hudson Holdings Group, just announced plans to open in Pearl River, at the same campus where Pfizer's successful research for the COVID-19 vaccine took place.

The company was established in response to the pandemic and the demand for American-made PPE. The company received a $750,000 grant from the state to produce safety equipment.

“When you look at the confluence of it, it's amazing. Pfizer being the first on the market making Rockland proud in creating the vaccine, and now making N95 masks,” says Rockland County Executive Ed Day.

The facility at the New York Center for Innovation plans to make 2 million to 3 million N-95 face masks every day. These would be manufacturing jobs like line workers, staff supervision and managerial personnel.

It's expected to be a huge economic and safety boost for the entire Hudson Valley area. "Our unemployment rate really has been coming down quite considerably, and it's recovering to the pre-pandemic rate, which is 3.5%. We were 6.4% in February and 5.8% in March,” says Day.

Russ Gerson, senior advisor for NY Critical Materials, tells News 12 they're also looking to quickly expand into other medical-grade products that are historically manufactured in China and bringing much-needed American jobs right into the Hudson Valley. "Having the ability to access product on the ground for the users, the hospitals and nursing homes, the facilities that need medical-grade masks, so we believe that the need for a N-95 is going too far exceed the period of the pandemic."

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held later this year.