Central Indiana Update
The region's top business stories.

by Kathy Mayer

When it comes to science, especially life science, Marion County is getting down to business, according to The Indy Partnership.

Carmel-based Theron Inc. acquired licensing rights to Indianapolis-based Roche Diagnostics Corp.’s biosensor technology platform, which is the basis for Roche’s blood-glucose monitoring systems. While Roche will continue to market its Accu-Chek Advantage system, Theron will form a new biosensor technology company that will use the license to develop and sell products in the environmental and food-safety testing markets. The new company is expected to create about 300 jobs within six years. Roche, meanwhile, has leased a 40,000-square-foot building in Hamilton County’s Fishers not far from its Indianapolis headquarters, where about 200 will work.

BioStorage Technologies LLC has opened in the Park Fletcher Industrial Park, investing $3.5 million for its biological specimen storage, management and logistics facility, which serves life-science businesses. It’s hiring about 100 in its first two years.

AIT Laboratories is spending $5 million on its new corporate headquarters and toxicology lab and adding another 75 jobs to its workforce of 40. It serves the clinical, forensic and pharmaceutical industries.

NNC Group is expanding its Indianapolis presence, moving much of its St. Louis operation to Indiana and adding 270 jobs to its current 73. The expansion includes a $3.1 million, 137,000-square-foot facility in Park Fletcher that houses the company’s headquarters and a processing facility. NNC provides turnkey recall, return and specialized logistics services to the pharmaceutical, medical device, financial and consumer products industries.

Indianapolis also welcomed Norwood Promotional Products, which moved its corporate headquarters from Austin to Indiana last summer, creating 80 jobs. It’s the world’s largest supplier of promotion products–some 6,000 products, with annual sales topping $400 million.

In other news, the site of the former Market Square Arena will be developed by Market Square Partners LLC into Residences at Market Square, with two 22-story condo towers plus other buildings housing retail and commercial space, to be known as Shoppes at Market Square.

Hamilton and Shelby counties are eyeing high-tech expansion.

In Hamilton County, Carmel’s Zotec Solutions, now employing 40, will add another 160 over the next five years. The electronic medical records/billing company is spending $5 million on a new headquarters/technology development center and an expansion to it.

For commercial, industrial and office development, ground was broken last September for Noblesville Campus East. Some $24 million in infrastructure improvements are under way on the 700-acre site. It’s being developed by the city and Interchange Diversified LLC. Building sites will be available this spring.

"The economy is moving from good to better," says Jeff Burt, president of the Hamilton County Alliance. "Our areas of strength are health care, retail and headquarters expansion projects."

Shelby County is working from the ground up, reports Dan Theobald, executive director of the Shelby County Development Corp.

Under way is Intelliplex Park, a 130-acre site in Shelbyville that’s already a Certified Technology Park. A joint project by the city, Shelby County and Major Hospital, the park’s first building, now under construction, will house a satellite for Indiana Wesleyan University. The hospital is building a cancer center there, and office and high-tech businesses are being recruited.

Three central Indiana counties are reaping the benefits of big-box employers: Hendricks, Hancock and Boone.

With 16 million square feet of distribution space already under roof and another 2 million square feet under construction, Hendricks County is big-box country, reports Harold Gutzwiller, executive director of the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership.

Among the newest under way is a $75 million, 200,000-square-foot facility in Plainfield for Eli Lilly & Co., which will open in 2005. "The specialized building will replace a facility in downtown Indianapolis," Gutzwiller says. "It gives the company more capacity, efficiency and flexibility."

Retailer Brylane is building a $15 million, 750,000-square-foot distribution center, also in Plainfield.

Spec space under way includes a 406,000-square-foot building in Brownsburg by Lauth Property Group; and in Plainfield, an 813,000-square-foot building by Browning Investment/Keystone Property Trust, a 424,000-square-facility by Opus North and a 400,000-square-foot building by Duke.

"The availability of speculative bulk space has been critical in the continued development of Hendricks County as a center of excellence for 21st century logistics," Gutzwiller says.

Hancock County, too, is benefiting from big-box construction, reports Donieta Ross at the Council for Economic Development.

This spring it welcomes Cincinnati-based Formica Corp. to the Mount Comfort Industrial Park, where it will operate a 165,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center for its countertop and flooring products. Formica will employ about 40.

In other news, the Hancock Memorial Hospital is spending $30 million on an expansion that will include a new emergency room, intensive care unit and cardiac unit. And Greenfield’s Lilly Laboratories/Elanco Animal Health Division has moved 130 employees from an Indianapolis facility, boosting Greenfield employment to 330.

In Boone County, the big news comes from Lake Forest, Ill.-based Case New Holland, which will hire 700 by year-end 2005 at its new farm-equipment parts distribution center. The $28.7 million project includes two warehouses in the Lebanon Business Park, one 842,000 square feet for its national parts distribution facility; the other, 250,000 square feet, for its export parts business.

"With the availability of land decreasing in our surrounding counties, Boone is becoming the area in which the development and real-estate communities will be focused on for the future," says Kristie Fessel, executive director of the Boone County Economic Development Corp.

In other news she reports Fanimation’s expansion and move from Lebanon to Zionsville, where it’s boosting employment from 26 to 42 at its ceiling fan plant.

Monsanto is also headed to Boone County to open its first facility there, where it’s building a $1 million corn seed research facility in Lebanon that will employ about 20.

Morgan County is benefiting from high interest in home crafts and steady business in the auto industry, says Helen Humes, executive director of the Morgan County Economic Development Corp.

On the crafts side, construction is getting under way this spring for the $1.4 million, 50,000-square-foot Honey & Me Inc. distribution center in Mooresville’s Flagstaff Business Park that will employ 30. The business sells arts and crafts products for the home and generated $4.5 million in revenue in 2003.

On the auto end, TOA USA in Mooresville is expanding again. The automotive parts maker, which primarily supplies Subaru of Indiana Inc. in Lafayette, now employs 204. It’s adding 88,000 square feet in a $9.8 million investment in construction and equipment and by year-end will employ 340.

The company’s facility, initially 190,000 square feet, opened in 2002, with a 71,000-square-foot expansion added in 2003. "In all, they’ve invested more than $100 million here since 2001," Humes says.

Despite the good fortune of its neighboring counties, Johnson County is facing significant loss of jobs.

The Best Buy distribution facility in Franklin has announced it will cut 400 of its 950 employees by July 31. The downturn comes with the loss of Musicland’s business, about 45 percent of its revenues.

The news comes on the heels of ArvinMeritor’s ongoing cuts that will lead to 850 job losses in Franklin with that plant’s closing, the 2003 closing of Alpine Electronics in Greenwood and the 2002 closing of Franklin’s Kawneer plant.