Indiana

Dannar Selects Muncie, IN for Mobile PowerStation Assembly Facility

DD Dannar LLC announced that it has chosen Muncie, Indiana for a new Mobile PowerStation assembly facility. The company, which is currently based in Greenville, South Carolina, will also be moving its corporate headquarters to the Delaware County location in Muncie.

Dannar Mobile PowerStation in front of new facility in Muncie, IN

Dannar Mobile PowerStation in front of new facility in Muncie, IN (photo – dannar-pressrelease.com)

The company will invest $4.65 million in Muncie over the next four years, and the project is expected to create 288 new jobs with average wages of $27.33 per hour for assembly of high-tech vehicles.

The Dannar Mobile PowerStation (MPS) is a class of purpose built hybrid vehicles used by governments for maintenance and as a source of off-grid clean energy. The vehicle model is the first of its kind to combine battery powered electricity with hydraulic drive-trains.

Gary Dannar, CEO and Founder of DD Dannar, LLC, said that Muncie has the right people for producing the MPS with pride and quality.

Not to mention the fact that the company has been provided with an attractive package of state and local incentives.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) has approved performance-based state tax credits worth $2.6 million and another $25,000 in training grants, linked to the company’s job creation commitments.

The Delaware County Redevelopment Commission is pitching in with $150,000 as a low-interest loan, and another $500,000 for site improvements to the Business Center facility on West Bethel Ave. The county owns this property, and is providing 25,000 square feet of space in this facility to DD Dannar free of rent.

DD Dannar LLC has also previously received a $200,000 investment from SC Launch in 2011. SC Launch is an affiliate of the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), and promotes high-tech economic development in South Carolina.

Larry Bledsoe, president of the Delaware County Board of Commissioners, said they were pleased to have played a role in this project and thanked DD Dannar LLC for their confidence in the county.

Jay Julian, president and CEO of the Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Alliance, said they knew they were doing the right things to promote economic development when they see exciting and innovative businesses like Dannar choosing to locate in Muncie-Delaware County.

Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler said the announcement was a testament to the community and the quality of the workforce.

The company’s plans call for creating 20 new jobs in the first year, with expected growth fueling more employment up to 479 jobs in five years.

File Sharing Company SmartFile to Expand Indianapolis Operations

Business file sharing and FTP hosting company SmartFile announced that it will be expanding operations at its home base in Indianapolis, Indiana.

SmartFile

SmartFile (photo – smartfile.com)

SmartFile is registered as Secured FTP Hosting, LLC, and plans to invest $2.1 million to expand and set up the equipment required for its Platform as a Service.

Developers can use this PaaS and the SmartFile open source API (application programming interface) to add new features and applications.

The expansion will also create 30 new jobs by 2016, and the company has already started hiring software engineers, system administrators and web developers.

SmartFile already offers its business file sharing and FTP hosting platform to 1,300 clients across more than 120 countries, many of whom use the company’s platform to move big data in one secure environment.

John Hurley, co-founder and CEO of SmartFile, said that Indianapolis offers an excellent environment for fostering growth with its affordable resources, supportive community and wide range of talent.

Not to mention the fact that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) has offered Secured FTP Hosting, LLC a $300,000 conditional grant, and an additional $20,000 in training grants linked to the company fulfilling its job creation commitments.

IEDC President Eric Doden said that Central Indiana had become a testing ground for high-tech entrepreneurial companies such as SmartFile. He added that these companies have a competitive edge in the Hoosier State, where pro-growth and low-tax policies make it cheaper and easier to do business.

Since the IEDC was created in 2005, more than 80 IT companies have opened or expanded facilities in the state, investing more than $608 million and creating more than 16,000 new jobs in the process. John Hurley and SmartFile’s other co-founder Ben Timby have both previously been involved with ExactTarget – one of Indianapolis and Indiana’s biggest IT success stories.

The City of Indianapolis is supporting the SmartFile expansion based on a request from Develop Indy, the business and workforce development unit of the Indy Chamber.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said that this expansion further solidifies the city’s role in the digital technology sector. He added that by providing services to companies around the nation and creating high-tech jobs in the downtown core, SmartFile had proved that companies of all sizes are able to thrive in the city’s business climate.

IEDC Promoting Motorsports Economic Development With Dallara Simulator

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. (IEDC) announced that it will be investing $1.15 million into the motorsports engineering program at the Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) Purdue School of Engineering and Technology.

Dallara Simulator

Dallara Simulator (photo – .iupui.edu)

The investment is supposed to be used by IUPUI for a partnership with Dallara, ostensibly to advance motorsports engineering technologies and economic development in Indiana related to motorsports.

For its part, IUPUI is chipping in with $200,000 for the project.

Specifically, the two-year grant offers funding to help complete and operate the most advanced vehicle simulator in the world being built at the Dallara IndyCar Factory.

The factory is located in Speedway, just a mile from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500. Dallara Automobili, which is an Italian company, already has this simulator in Italy and it has been tested by well-known racecar drivers in Italian competitions.

Ed Carpenter, the 2013 Indy 500 pole winner who is team owner and driver of the No. 20 Fuzzys Vodka Chevrolet, said that he was thrilled the Dallara Simulator was coming to Indiana. He said he had used it a couple of times in Italy, and added that it would be a great tool for teams in the Izod IndyCar Series.

The investment is being made with the hope that the simulator will lead to more partnerships between Indiana’s academic institutions, the motorsports industry and racing teams. It will also further the state’s reputation as a center for motorsports, and attract more teams and their support staff of engineers and mechanics.

Indiana Secretary of Commerce Victor Smith said that by linking advanced innovations in the motorsports industry to higher education, the state will continue to be a pioneer in motorsports R&D and generate new investments and jobs.

Andrea Pontremoli, general manager and CEO of Dallara, said that the simulator will not only raise racing technology levels in Indiana, but also impact other industries outside of motorsports that will be able to use the technologies.

David Russomanno, dean of the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, explained that the simulator enables rapid prototyping of innovative vehicle designs. This technology can therefore be used not just in motorsports, but also by the automobile industry.

A recent Perdue study showed that the motorsports industry in Indiana is worth more than $3 billion, directly employs more than 23,000 workers with average annual wages of almost $63,000, and is credited for another 421,000 indirect jobs.

Indiana Pulls Support for $1.8B Posey County Fertilizer Project

After four months of indecision, Indiana finally made the choice to pull the plug on state support for the $1.8 billion Midwest Fertilizer Company project.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer (photo – nih.gov)

Pakistan-based Fatima Group has 48 percent stake in the company, and the project had been on hold since January 2013 due to national security concerns.

Here’s a brief timeline of events that led the state to withdraw support for the Posey County project after approving incentives and $1.3 billion in financing through bonds.

On November 30, 2012, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) offered an incentives package to Midwest Fertilizer Company.

The exact amount or nature of the incentives has not been disclosed, but it would have been considerable given the scale of the project which was supposed to create 2,500 construction jobs over three years, followed by more than 300 high-paying permanent jobs.

Apart from IEDC and the Indiana Governor’s Office, the company had been working with the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana and the Posey County Economic Development Partnership.

On December 20, 2012, the Indiana Finance Authority issued $1.259 billion worth of Indiana Finance Authority Industrial Development Revenue Bonds, with the proceeds going into escrow to be loaned to Midwest Fertilizer Company as financing for the project.

What’s notable about this is that these bonds were made available to Indiana under a federal disaster aid program that was slated to expire in 10 days at the end of the year, so they were perhaps rushed into a huge decision that probably should not have been made so quickly.

Immediately after that, state officials found that a U.S. Dept. of Defense official had testified before Congress that the Fatima Group had not been cooperating with efforts to reduce IED threats in Asia. Their fertilizer was apparently being used as an ingredient to build bombs, and the company was not doing enough to keep track of their supplies or change its formula so that it could not be used this way.

On January 15, 2013, a day after he took office, Governor Mike Pence ordered the project to be put on hold pending a review.

This review has been ongoing for the last four months as local economic development officials put pressure on the Governor to approve the project, and the company began cooperating to do what the DoD required of them.

Again, Indiana was being rushed into a hasty decision because there was a legal deadline for the $1.3 billion in escrow to be made available to the company in July, or the project would have to be scrapped.

On May 17, 2013, Gov. Pence issued a statement explaining that he had ordered the IEDC to withdraw support for the project.

He said he did not take the decision lightly, and added that while economic development was important, the security and safety of soldiers in harm’s way was more important.

On the same day, IEDC President Eric R. Doden sent a letter to Feisal Beig of the Fatima group notifying them of the withdrawal of incentives for the project.

Midwest Fertilizer Corporation issued its own statement, also on May 17, expressing disappointment at the announcement, but also noting that they would continue to work with the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana and the Posey County Economic Development Partnership to explore options to build the plant without state support.

Subaru to Add 900 Jobs at Lafayette, IN Plant

Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA) executives were joined by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for the announcement of an expansion at the company’s Lafayette plant to enable production of the Subaru Impreza model.

Subaru of Indiana Automotive

Subaru of Indiana Automotive (photo – subaru-sia.com)

SIA, which is a subsidiary of Tokyo, Japan-based Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd., will be making an investment that will range in between $400 million to $450 million.

The investment will allow the company to add another 500,000 square feet of space and add production capacity for another 100,000 vehicles per year.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, the company produced 271,583 vehicles at the Lafayette plant. They currently produce around 170,000 of the company’s Legacy, Outback and Tribeca models per year. SIA also has a contract with Toyota to produce another 100,000 units of the Toyota Camry per year.

The expansion to produce another 100,000 vehicles and add the Impreza to their production line will require the company to create 900 new jobs at the plant.

The company had considered building a new plant in Mexico for fulfilling rising North American demand for the Impreza, but decided that giving it to the existing facility in SIA would be a better option.

Tom Easterday, executive vice president of SIA, said they were excited about the chance to build the Impreza, which is currently built only in Japan. He promised that the Impreza would be built with the same high quality and teamwork that went into making every Subaru that rolled out of SIA.

In order to secure the expansion project, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) offered SIA a $10 million incentive package. This includes up to $9.5 million in conditional tax credits and another $500,000 in training grants linked to the company fulfilling its job creation commitments.

The City of Lafayette is additionally offering the company property tax abatements.

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said he could still remember when the company had first announced that it was selecting Lafayette for the plant, and added that they had far exceed expectations and were doing so again with the largest ever investment announcement in their history.

SIA began production in Lafayette in 1989, and the plant has now grown to employ 3,664 employees, not including today’s announcement of 900 new jobs. The construction for the expansion project is expected to be complete by the end of 2016.

Chief Executive Survey – Best States for Doing Business

Chief Executive Magazine has published its ninth annual survey of CEO opinions regarding the best and worst states for doing business.

Texas Top State for Doing Business

Texas Top State for Doing Business (Photo – state.tx.us)

The top five remain unchanged from last year’s listing, with Texas at the top and Indiana bookending the top five list in fifth place. Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee take the second, third and fourth spots respectively.

The two surprises in the 2013 list are Arizona and Nevada. Arizona jumped up four spots to take the sixth place, while Nevada jumped three rungs to climb up to ninth place.

Virginia and South Carolina were each pushed down one slot to seventh and eighth place rankings, while Georgia was pushed down two slots into the 10th place.

Among all 50 states, the biggest mover on the list was Ohio, whose ranking jumped up 13 places from 35th place last year to 22nd this year.

The list is based on responses from 736 CEOs who graded states they were familiar with on a variety of metrics such as living environment, workforce quality and taxation and regulation.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but 19 out of the top 20 states on the list are states which currently have Republican governors. The only outlier is Colorado, which is in 13th place and has a Democrat in the governor’s mansion.

Progressive states similarly crowd the bottom of the list. California is listed dead last, preceded by New York and Illinois. New Jersey and Massachusetts join these three as the five worst states for doing business, as per the 736 CEOs surveyed by Chief Executive Magazine.

You can see the full list of all 50 states here.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence said in a statement that their fifth ranking nationwide and top ranking as the best state for business in the Midwest was a validation of the work they have put in to make Indiana the country’s top jobs state.

Gov. Pence added that chief executives knew that Indiana was among the few states that actually works for business.

Grand Design RV to Add 500 Jobs and open HQ in Elkhart, IN

Newly formed recreational vehicle manufacturer Grand Design RV, LLC announced plans to set up its headquarters and expand manufacturing in Elkhart County, Indiana.

Solitude - Grand Design RV

Solitude – Grand Design RV (photo – granddesignrv.com)

The company plans to add 500 new jobs by 2016, in addition to the 115 existing jobs that have been created in the first four months of the company’s existence.

Back in 2012, three Keystone RV leaders decided to set up their own company. Grand Design RV President Don Clark, along with co-owners Bill and Ron Fenech, had just left their jobs and invested $11.1 million to purchase and equip the vacant Four Seasons Housing facility in the Town of Middlebury.

The 67-acre facility has four plants which add up into 400,000 square feet of manufacturing space which had been used by Four Seasons for production of mobile homes.

That was a grand enough design, but they probably outdid their own expectations by getting their only model – an extended fifth-wheel named Solitude, out into the market in January 2013 and quickly selling 100 units by March 19, 2013.

On the same day, they also announced that the company had hired its 100th employee. That number has now crept up to 115, with another 500 administration, sales, distribution and manufacturing positions to be filled over the next few years as the company solidified plans to set up their headquarters in Middlebury, add a second RV model and produce 1,750 RVs this year.

Don Clark said they were always going to choose Elkhart County, and were very much interested in Middlebury in particular, because of the experienced RV workforce and supplier network that was readily available.

Not to mention that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) provided additional motivation to stay put in Indiana with $2.85 million in performance-based tax credits and another $200,000 in the form of a training grant. Middlebury is providing additional local incentives.

Elkhart County Council member David Hess said that Grand design could have gone to a neighboring state, but they chose Elkhart County because of the local expertise in recreational vehicles and the automotive sector.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said that there was no better place for Grand Design to set up their operations than the RV capital of the world.

As per the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, the industry as a whole produced 26,100 RVs in February this year. More than 83 percent of all U.S. RV production is centered in Indiana.

Drew Industries Getting $4.3M in Tax Credits for Relocation to Indiana

In Feb 2013, Drew Industries Incorporated (NYSE: DW) had announced plans to relocate their corporate headquarters from White Plains, New York to Elkhart, Indiana.

Drew Industries

Drew Industries (photo – drewindustries.com)

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) has now announced more details about the relocation project.

The corporate relocation coupled with a $12.7 million expansion of its manufacturing facilities in the cities of Goshen and Elkhart will create 800 new jobs by 2017.

To be specific, the expansions are for Lippert Components, Inc. and Kinro, Inc., wholly owned Drew subsidiaries which produce components for recreational vehicles and manufactured homes.

The corporate relocation makes sense because over the last few years, Drew has repeatedly chosen the sites in Goshen in Elkhart for expansions and new plants, while its corporate headquarters is far away in Upstate New York.

When it announced the relocation, the company had said in a statement that it would be cost-effective and also “result in an even greater exchange of ideas and expertise between Drew’s management team and executives across the RV and manufactured housing industries.”

Jason D. Lippert, chairman and CEO of Lippert Components and Kinro, said the relocation of their corporate headquarters made sense because most RVs made in the USA are actually manufactured in Elkhart County.

Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore said this would further solidify Elkhart’s position as the world’s RV capital.

To secure the project, IEDC offered Drew $4.3 million in conditional tax credits, along with another $200,000 in the form of training grants tied to the company’s job creation performance. The cities of Goshen and Elkhart are additionally providing tax abatements as local incentives.

Goshen Mayor Allan Kauffman said the county is fortunate to have Drew Industries, which has become one of the county’s largest employers.  Drew has a total of 5,200 full-time employees in 30 factories spread across the U.S., out of which 3,400 jobs are located in Indiana.

Governor Mike Pence said the company’s decision to relocate its corporate headquarters and expand manufacturing in Indiana builds on the state’s strength as the RV capital of the world, and is more proof of Indiana’s talented workforce and competitive tax environment.

Duke Energy Launches Site Readiness Program in Indiana

Duke Energy announced that it is replacing its Community Growth Partnership program in Indiana with a new “Site Readiness” program which will help communities identify, improve and market industrial sites for economic development projects.

Duke Energy

Photo – Duke Energy

As per the program’s webpage, the aim is to assist with initial site screening and assessment in order to ease the “burdens for local economic development organizations.”

Bart Beal, Duke Energy Indiana vice president of community relations and economic development, said that Duke had been working with communities in Indiana for many years, helping them attract new businesses and industries.

Beal also added that the new Site Readiness program would give communities a competitive edge in terms of certainty for a business looking to quickly locate and develop a project.

While this is not a site certification program per se, the eligibility criteria and steps that the community will be required to take ensure the site will qualify to be certified by Indiana as a Shovel Ready site.

Apart from the site being under the Duke Energy service area, the qualifications required are as below:-

- It must be an industrial site, which can be a single site for one large project, or a multi-tenant industrial park.

- Must be certified shovel ready, in need of improvements to enhance marketability.

- Must be suitable for urban redevelopment, including a building complex.

Duke will only be working with 3-5 sites such sites per year, so Indiana communities with qualifying sites should get their applications in right away. If accepted, you can expect funding and site improvement services from Duke worth up to $30,000, which includes:-

- Initial assessment of the site by site selection consultants McCallum Sweeney Consulting. This includes a site tour and meetings with local economic development officials;

- A more detailed assessment and development of conceptual plans for the site by Banning Engineering;

- A detailed report on site viability and recommendations for improving site readiness.

Duke will provide a matching grant of $10,000 to implement these recommendations. Once these measures have been implemented, the site will be classified as a “Build Ready” site in Duke Energy’s database for site selectors.

For more information about the Duke Energy Site Readiness program for Indiana, visit www.locationindiana.com.

GM Announces $332M Powertrain Investments in MI, OH, IN

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) announced plans to invest $331.8 million on fuel-efficient powertrains across four separate manufacturing facilities in Bay City and Flint, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Bedford, Indiana.

GM investments in MI, OH, IN

GM investments in MI, OH, IN (photo – gm.com)

GM also announced an extra $46 million in powertain investments for plants in Saginaw and Romulus, Michigan.

These investments in six GM plants will help retain a total of 1,650 jobs to support production of the company’s new V6 engine, the small Ecotec gas engine and other transmissions.

No new jobs are being created with these investments.

Diana Tremblay, vice president of GM North American Manufacturing, said that this announcement demonstrated the company’s commitment towards strengthening communities where it has plants.

The exact breakup of today’s announcements is as follows:-

Flint, MI – $215 million for a small Ecotec gas engine and upgrades for existing V6 engine production.

Bay City, MI – $12.5 million for the Ecotec engine and $19.2 million to produce V6 engine components.

Toledo, OH – $55.7 million for expansion and tooling so that the plant can produce a new and advanced 8-speed automatic transmission, along with the existing 6-speed transmission.

Bedford, IN – Bedford Castings gets $19 million to produce components for the Ecotec gas engine, along with another $10.4 million to enable production of the aforementioned 8-speed and 6-speed transmissions.

The $46 million addition to previously announced investments in the Saginaw and Romulus plants in Michigan are as follows:-

Saginaw, MI – The Saginaw Metal Castings plant gets $41 million (total of $256 million) to enable production of castings for the new V6 engine.

Romulus, MI – The Romulus Engine plant gets an extra $5 million (total $390 million) for V6 engine production.

Joe Ashton, the UAW vice president in charge of the UAW GM department, said these investments would ensure UAW members continued to support the company’s growth and get their due share of it.

This latest round of investments brings GM’s 2013 commitments so far to $1.2 billion. Since 2009, the company has announced $1.8 billion in powertrain investments at these six facilities.

GM’s total investment across all U.S. operations since 2009 works out to $8.5 billion, which has resulted in the creation and retention of 24,700 jobs.

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