Economic Development News from St. Joseph County Chamber - Dec 2012 (More than $125M in Expansions))

Monthly economic development enewsletter from the St. Joseph County Chamber | Devember 2012

ABOUT OUR PROGRAM
The Chamber is the Lead Economic Development Organization (LEDO) for St. Joseph County. As the LEDO, we seek to coordinate programs that help businesses start, grow, or locate anywhere in our county. The Chamber works closely with local government partners, the business community and other regional partners in an effort to have a coordinated, focused and effective local economic development program. The program is primarily funded by the local business community, as well as with support from the city of South Bend.

BUSINESS GROWTH & EXPANSION

Growing Your Business

The Chamber recognizes how important growing our existing businesses is to our local economic development efforts. Greg Lorch, director of business growth, called upon 18 different companies in November to discuss growth/expansion opportunities. The focus of these visits is related to businesses engaged in interstate commerce. Those visits also have netted opportunities to facilitate resolving issues that serve as barriers to growth. In November, 34 different issues were resolved.

To view a summary of building permits pulled in the month of November, click here for the Commercial Construction Activity Report.

Chamber Stats

Number of Business Visits
in November: 18
Number of Different Issues
Resolved in November: 34
Year-to-Date Business Visits: 155
Year-to-Date Different
Business Issues Resolved: 134

South Bend
Mishawaka Business Growth Continue

Announcements included below have pushed the number of major business expansions to 21 in our community this year, with the promise of more than 700 new jobs and more than $125 million in new private capital investment.

Elkhart Plastics
to Expand

South Bend-based Elkhart Plastics Inc. plans to expand its headquarters and add up to 50 jobs by 2015. The company intends to invest $3.8 million in the project. The molded plastic parts manufacturer currently has 290 workers at facilities in three Indiana communities.
Read more

Curtis Products in
Line to Take Over Honeywell Building
The former building for Bosch, Honeywell and Bendix in South Bend is in line to become the new home of Curtis Products. The massive building was vacated in October, and it is proposed that the city-owned buildings be leased to Curtis Products for 12 years, with no rent for the first two.

Curtis does tube bending and fabrication for automotive, agricultural and other clients. In addition to its new South Bend acquisition, Curtis now has 324 workers spread out over four different plants in South Bend. The company has pledged to invest $675,000 in new equipment and create nine new jobs as part of the project.

Former Studebaker Property Gets New Life
The first tenant moved into Ignition Park, located on the old Studebaker grounds in South Bend, in November. Data Realty moved into their new 45,000 square-foot, $25 million data center last month. Data Realty was formerly located at Innovation Park, on the Notre Dame campus.

Former High School Gains New Life as Business Incubator
F Cubed is the second startup company to leave Innovation Park, destined for the real world. The 55,000 square-foot think-tank incubator biotech business launched in 2010 and occupied a 1,200 square-foot laboratory suite in Innovation Park. By 2011, it expanded to a second 1,200 square-foot suite, but growth this year has been so great, the business is being forced out. They now plan to invest close to $2.6 million to establish an 8,000 square-foot laboratory within the former art wing at Saint Joseph High School. That portion of the building was most attractive as it contains a security and sprinkler system, in addition to air conditioning, unlike most of the 59-year-old structure.

Within its current laboratory layout at Innovation Park, F Cubed is able to process about a dozen DNA biochips per day. Once it establishes operations at Saint Joseph High School, that figure will grow to 48 biochips an hour. By January 2015, they project 300,000 chips per year.

F Cubed currently employs eight full-time and three part-time staffers. However, they expect that number to grow to 35 by January 2015. Most of the soon-to-be-added positions will be high-skilled jobs, similar to the RV and automobile industry. Salaries will range from $30,000 to $35,000 a year and include a quality benefits package.

Developing your Marketing Strategy

Marketing your business involves determining exactly what your customers want to getting the right product into their hands when, where and how they want it. The North Central ISBDC will offer a December 18 workshop that will help you with the ongoing process of making your business known to your customers. More/to register

BUSINESS ATTRACTION

Attracting New Business/Investment
to our Area

In November, The Chamber worked with five companies looking for a new location for a facility. Of those five, 13 properties were submitted for consideration. The projects included manufacturing companies seeking locations for uses such as auto parts manufacturing and food manufacturing. Each company is still very early in the decision-making process, and at the present time, no sites have been ruled out.

Exploring New Markets

Last week, the Michiana World Trade Council, an initiative of The Chamber, presented a program about doing business the China. Dr. Lionel Jensen, professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Notre Dame, presented fascinating information about the current and short-term outlook for doing business in the Chinese marketplace. Dr. Jensen spoke about how China has made strides toward becoming a market-oriented economy but that protectionist measures remain. He also explained the drastic economic differences between the rural and urban areas of the country. Other insights were offered by Youqing Ma, foreign commercial service officer with the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Alan Brown, vice president of Lebermuth Company, an area family-owned business that is engaged in the global marketplace.

More International Trade

A lunch meeting was held with the director of Indiana's Export Assistance Center of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the senior international project manager of the Indiana Economic Development Center. The meeting established a network to better assist local businesses in finding international opportunities as well as recruiting international businesses to locate operations in northern Indiana.

Pursuing a Trade Opportunity?

Is your company interested in pursuing opportunities outside of the United States? If you aren't sure where to start, start with us. Between our work with the Michiana World Trade Council, our relationships with the IEDC and U.S. Department of Commerce, and our business advisors at the North Central ISBDC, we have the team to help you as you pursue new opportunities. For more, email us at growsjc@sjchamber.org.

BUSINESS STARTUPS

Starting a New Business

Starting new businesses is an important part of The Chamber's Economic Development Strategy. That's why The Chamber hosts the North Central Indiana Small Business Development Center. The North Central ISBDC builds and supports strong entrepreneurial communities by providing small business owners with mentoring and training programs and access to a wide range of business resources. Their services are available in the following areas:

Accounting/Budgeting

Business Planning

Buying/Selling a Business

Cash Flow Management

eCommerce

Engineering R&D

Financing/Capital

Franchising

Government Contracting Human

Resources/Employee Management

International Trade

Legal Issues

Managing a Business

Marketing/Sales

Start-up Assistance

Tax Planning

Technology/Computers

Interested in learning more about how we can help? If so, we'd love to hear from you, and share more about the resources we have available to help you start or grow your busines. Contact us at sbdcinfo@southbendbcg.com.

IMPROVING THE BUSINESS CLIMATE

Legislative Update:

The Chamber, Krieg DeVault and AT&T teamed up to present its annual Legislative Preview on December 4 at Windsor Park in Mishawaka. Krieg DeVault lobbyists Mike McDaniel, Amy Levander and Kip Tew gave participants a bipartisan look at the issues and some predictions about the major issues and how they will shape public policy this next session. The Krieg DeVault team brings many years of experience representing major health care organizations, financial institutions, utilities, manufacturers and many more national and international companies and organizations as their advocate in federal, state and local government policy-making. Their government affairs professionals have leadership experience at the federal and state levels of government, and several have held important statewide political campaign positions.

Legislators will gather for this year's long session beginning on Monday, January 7, 2013. By law, the session must end by April 29. A new governor, as well as many issues critical to Indiana business await the upcoming session. Watch future editions of this newsletter and ChamberWire for updates on Chamber legislative priorities. If there is a particular legislative issue impacting your business and you want The Chamber to know more about it, let us know at growsjc@sjchamber.org.

Medical Device Tax Meeting with Senator-Elect Donnelly:

The Chamber participated in a meeting with medical device manufacturers and chambers of commerce from around the state on December 7. The Medical Device Tax is a 2.3% excise tax that begins January 1, 2013. It was noted that the recently released implementation plans for the tax also include taxes on the instrumentation that is used to install the medical devices. This instrumentation is normally placed, not sold, with the health care professional. As such, the tax is more aptly described as a manufacturing tax than a sales tax.

As the companies have to compensate for this added cost in order to preserve shareholder value, they are looking to reduce costs elsewhere in the organization. The manufacturers described the headcount reductions that have already started in anticipation of the tax, asking present employees to do more. As operations are already lean, a significant portion of the savings is being taken out of research and development, impacting innovation in the industry. As research and development funds are reduced, it not only impacts the hiring of engineers, it is likely to reduce support research at universities to help them commercialize their technology. In addition to impacting OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), there is concern among first- and second-tier suppliers that, as the OEMs look to reduce costs further, they may look offshore to supply instrumentation and components, impacting the supporting industries in Indiana.

Senator-elect Donnelly was optimistic in the rising support for a one-year delay in the implementation of the tax. It is anticipated that the one-year delay will allow enough time to gain the needed support for a full repeal. The recommendation for action is to network with industry contacts in other states to contact their respective legislators for support of the repeal of the tax.

In addition to the tax repeal activity, Senator-elect Donnelly plans to lead efforts to work with the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) to expedite the review and approval process for medical devices. Finally, based on the amount of work going on behind closed doors, Senator-elect Donnelly became more optimistic in the last 24 hours that an agreement will be reached to prevent the economy from falling over the Fiscal Cliff.

Leadership in Action:

Last month's Leadership in Action program discussed the lessons learned from The Chamber's Intercity Visit to Pittsburgh, as well as the role this group can, and should, play in affecting change here in our area. It was determined that this group could be a working/leadership forum that brings the various stakeholders together to better define, align and execute initiatives. The final role of this group, as it relates to other initiatives, will need to be determined.

enFocus:

The Chamber has been providing private sector input to the enFocus Board of Directors. enFocus is a locally originated program that utilizes graduates (Fellows) from Notre Dame's ESTEEM program. The Fellows define and execute projects for local private and public organizations. In addition, it is intended to identify issues that may be contributing to the local brain drain. Each project within the program is being funded by a sponsor. The projects help the sponsoring organizations solve a specific problem or help run their operations more effectively and efficiently. It will be important to determine how best to leverage this program for future economic development.

Chamber Meets with South Bend City Leaders: This month a presentation was made to South Bend City Council members to inform them of our economic development activities and programs and to answer their questions and concerns. Additional discussions are warranted, with both the council members and the city administration, to make sure roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders are understood.

ECONOMIC PLANNING FOR
THE FUTURE

Economic Development Strategic Plan
Moving Forward
The Chamber continues to move closer to the completion of its four-year strategic plan related to economic development in St. Joseph County. The Chamber hired NCDS, a firm with experience working with chambers and economic development agencies from across the country for this process. NCDS has met with a number of business and government leaders from across the county to better understand the feasibility of the plan, and now is working on the refinement and final details of our strategic direction. Look for that plan to be complete as we enter the New Year and begin a campaign to support that plan.

Indiana Vision 2025,
A Plan for Hoosier Prosperity:
The Chamber joined more than 300 business and community leaders from every corner of Indiana last week in Indianapolis for a Statewide Summit on the Indiana Vision 2025 Plan. Among the presenters were former Governor Joe Kernan, current Governor Mitch Daniels and Governor-elect Mike Pence. The daylong summit covered each of the elements of the plan, including outstanding talent, attractive business climate, superior infrastructure, and a dynamic and creative culture.

A little background on the plan. In early 2012, the Indiana Chamber officially unveiled its new long-range economic development plan called Indiana Vision 2025. It was developed by a 24-person task force of business and association leaders from throughout the state in a 15-month series of meetings. In June 2012, five regional forums allowed the capture of perspectives from nearly 180 statewide leaders. The goal is a very important one: to make our state an even better place to live, work and raise a family. The mission: "Indiana will be a global leader in innovation and economic opportunity where enterprises and citizens prosper."