A medical company that collects blood plasma seeks to open its first facility in Connecticut, a 38-bed donation center in part of a shuttered Manchester supermarket.

CSL Plasma has applied to gut and remodel about 15,000 square feet in the former Save A Lot supermarket at 425 Broad St. A medical facility is a permitted use in the zone, so town officials only have to review the site plan, town senior planner Megan Pilla said Thursday.

After about three years, the Manchester center will employ about 60 full- and part-time workers, according to CSL. The Florida-based company has centers throughout the nation, including New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Plasma donors are compensated. Fees vary by location, according to the company, but donors can be paid more than $1,000 in their first month. Eligible donors include people in good health, age 18 to 65, who weigh at least 110 pounds, have no tattoos or piercings within the last 4 months and have valid identification and a permanent address, according to CSL.

The Star Tribune newspaper reported Wednesday that the Minnesota Department of Human Rights settled a lawsuit with CSL that the state says will ensure “transgender and nonbinary Minnesotans can donate plasma without being turned away because of their gender identity.”

The department launched a lawsuit in 2019 following complaints by a transgender woman and a nonbinary person who contended the company would not allow them to donate plasma due to their gender identities. The state dropped its claim the company broke the Minnesota Human Rights Act after CSL agreed to allow donors to self-identify their gender and provide training to employees.

Plasma is the liquid portion of blood. About 55% of blood is plasma; the remaining 45% comprises red and white blood cells and platelets suspended in the plasma. Plasma helps maintain blood pressure and volume, supplies proteins for blood clotting and immunity, carries electrolytes such as sodium and potassium to muscles and helps maintain a proper pH balance in the body, which supports cell function.

Plasma is used to treat bleeding disorders, primary immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, inherited respiratory disease and neurological disorders. CSL’s parent company CSL Behring, also makes products used in cardiac surgery, organ transplantation, burn treatment and to prevent hemolytic diseases in newborns.

The process to collect plasma begins with the patient on a bed. A machine mixes whole blood with an anticoagulant solution, separates the plasma into a container, then re-infuses red blood cells back into the donor. The process takes about 45 minutes, according to CSL. Generally, the body of a healthy donor quickly replaces the removed plasma.

U.S. Food & Drug Administration rules limit donations to once in two days and no more than twice in seven days.

Shaw’s Supermarket and then Save-A-Lot were anchors in the plaza at Broad and Center streets, which was sold to a Rhode Island developer in 2018 for about $10 million. Built in 1990, retail space totals about 75,000 square feet, according to assessor’s records.

The Shaw’s market was among 18 company locations that closed in April 2010. Save-A-Lot moved into a 16,500-square-foot section of the former supermarket later that year, but has since closed.

Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com