The Indy Partnership Blog

Bioscience Infrastructure was key to landing Medco

2007-11-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

Artilce by John Ketzenberger of the Indianapolis Star

Corporate executives work hard to say little, especially at big public announcements.

That's why local economic development officials beamed when Medco President Kenneth Klepper contrasted Indianapolis and Louisville, the finalist cities for a $150 million "flagship" distribution center.

"It's the work force, of course, but it's the city," Klepper said of why Medco chose Indianapolis.

"We're going to be bringing a lot of people into the city, through our facility. This is a place we know they're going to be very welcome and eager to come to."

This wasn't always the case for the burgeoning bioscience industry. Just ask John Mills, who started BioStorage Technologies in 2002.

"I would say, there was limited interest in what we wanted to do," Mills said. His company of 40 employees stores and ships biological samples for about 60 client companies. He has plenty of interest now, including $8.3 million in venture capital.

Medco, BioStorage and many other life-sciences companies aren't here by accident. They're investing here because the 50 CEOs who populate the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership realize it makes sense to play off the region's strengths.

"An event like this connects the dots for many people," said David Johnson, president of BioCrossroads, the first of CICP's efforts.

The area's work force, which Johnson said "has been trained, grown up and works in a (Food and Drug Administration)- compliant world," is an obvious dot.

Getting that work force to a position that passed muster with Medco was less apparent. Medco diced data so fine that the company knows where clusters of pharmacists live in the area.
Indiana has a deeper pool of pharmacists than most places because it has two of the nation's 100 pharmacy schools.

Medco was impressed to learn Lilly Endowment pumped $50 million into those schools last year, ensuring a pipeline of potential employees.

Remember, it was a pharmacist who created Eli Lilly and Co., the engine for much of the area's life-sciences assets, including medical devices and a large services industry.

Full text Indy Star article click here

Medco Sold on Indianapolis Region's Workforce

2007-11-13T12:01:00.001-08:00

When Medco Health Solutions began scouting the country last year for a site to build a massive pharmacy the size of six football fields, the New Jersey company had one ironclad requirement.

The winning region had to have enough skilled workers — pharmacists, technicians and engineering experts — to staff an enormous, mail-order operation that could dispense more than 1 million prescriptions a week.

Medco officials considered 21 cities, using computer models to analyze the work-force pools before deciding it liked what it saw in Central Indiana: two pharmacy schools at Purdue and Butler universities that together turn out about 300 graduates a year, along with a technical program at Ivy Tech that could provide plenty of technical and distribution workers to operate a highly automated facility.

Medco, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy distribution companies, announced Monday that it would invest $150.million in a new facility that will employ 1,300 people by 2012.
About 120 positions will be pharmacists, with the rest consisting of pharmacy technicians, engineers, information technology specialists and managers.

Workers will make from $40,000 to $100,000 a year. The company will pump an annual payroll of about $60 million into the region.

Full text article courtesy of the Indy Star

Business Incubator Planned for Hancock County

2007-11-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

An economic development and workforce strategies firm is establishing a business incubator in Hancock County. Thomas P. Miller and Associates says the incubator will focus on small businesses in early stage growth. The company says it will provide services including, business coaching and technology transfer to the companies.

Innovation and entrepreneurism are a vital part of a community’s economic development effort. “We are announcing today the establishment of an incubator at the Thomas P. Miller and Associates (TPMA) building off of I-70 and Mt. Comfort Road in Mount Comfort, Indiana” stated Tom Miller, President, of Thomas P. Miller and Associates, a nationally recognized firm specializing in economic development and workforce strategies. “This incubator is focused on launching and assisting small businesses in their early growth” said Miller.

For more information regarding the Indianapolis region, please visit www.indypartnership.com.

Chase to Add 125 Former Nelnet Employees to Indianapolis Operations

2007-11-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Chase continues to expand its Student Lending business with two key investments in staff and technology.

The investments are:

Hiring about 125 experienced staffers made available through atransaction with an industry
competitor
Opening a state-of-the art loan servicing center in Mississippi

“Chase continues to expand our student lending business so we can help more students and their families access higher education,” said Danny Ray, president of Chase’s student loan business, part of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). “With more people and new technology, we can do a better job for all of our customers.”

The former Nelnet employees in Indianapolis agreed to join Chase by Dec. 1.

In addition, Chase will sublease most of Nelnet’s office space in Indianapolis, which adds a second Student Lending originations facility in the city.
The additional employees will accelerate Chase’s plans to expand its loan-origination staff.
“This is a terrific opportunity to add experienced, knowledgeable loan originators to our staff,” Ray said.

Late last month, Chase celebrated the opening of a multimillion-dollar call center and student loan-processing facility for 275 employees in Madison, a suburb of Jackson, Miss.

For more information on the finance and insurance industries in the Indianapolis region please visit: http://www.indypartnership.com/.

Study Shows Indiana College Towns are Affordable

2007-11-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

The importance of having a strong education system cannot be overstated enough in economic development and the Indianapolis region is lucky to have one of the nation's best. With nearly 60,000 total degrees awarded by public and private institutions from 2005-2006, the Indianapolis region is primed to support significant jobs growth the region has seen of the past year, with more than 9,000 new jobs coming to the area.

Further, the Indianapolis region is projected to award over 18,000 Five-Year Public Graduate Business School degrees over the next four years.

Indiana College towns are not only full of eager, skilled students, but also full of affordable lifestyles. According to a study released by Coldwell Banker, found that Muncie, home of Ball State University, is the nation's most affordable college town.

The average price in Muncie for a four-bedroom, two-bath home with a two-car garage is $150,000, according to Coldwell Banker's College Home Price Comparison Index.

A similar house in Palo Alto, Calif., home of Stanford University, the most expensive college town, costs about $1.68 million.Other Indiana college towns also showed well on the list.

Purdue University and Indiana University had the most affordable housing markets in the Big Ten. Homes in West Lafayette averaged $184,333, while the Bloomington average was $198,000.

And the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, led independents, with an average home price of $180,500.

For more information on the higher education environment found in the Indianapolis region please visit the Indy Partnership web site.

Indy ranked high on data center list

2007-10-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

By Matt Stansberry, Site editor, SearchDataCenter.com

What are the three most important considerations when building a successful data center? Location, location, location.

To that end, Princeton, N.J., location consultants, The Boyd Company Inc., recently published its list of the top data center cities in the U.S. The study compares the cost of operating a data center in 35 U.S. cities -- including 25 of the nation's largest financial centers as well as 10 other locations -- ranked by estimated annual operating costs, scaled to a data center employing 75 workers and occupying 125,000 sq. ft. of new space.

Sioux Falls, S.D. $9,684,282
Winston-Salem, N.C. $9,799,928
San Antonio, Texas $10,314,249
Birmingham, Ala. $10,340,534
Ames, Iowa $10,378,916
Charlotte, N.C. $10,440,123
Indianapolis, Ind. $10,451,796
Tulsa, Okla. $10,452,228
Des Moines, Iowa $10,480,298
Columbus, Ohio $10,499,091

The Indianapolis market is the only large midwestern city on the list.

To read full story click here or for more information on the Indianapolis region please visit www.indypartnership.com.

Indiana Workplace Injuries Decline

2007-10-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Workplace injuries and illnesses in Indiana declined more than 5 percent from 2005 to 2006 even with an increase in the number of Hoosier workers, according to the 2006 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Survey of Occupational Injuries (BLS SOII).

There were 8,000 more workers in the state in 2006, but the injury and illness rate declined from 5.8 per 100 workers in 2005 to 5.4 in 2006, a 5.2 percent decline, the report said.

Indiana is home to the second lowest workers' compensation rate in the country, leading many employers to choose the Indianapolis region as a place to expand or start their manufacturing facility. As an employer within advanced manufacturing operations, having a team that knows how to put safety first is vital in today's environment. Just one injury can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars in lost productivity and health care bills. This gives Indiana a competitive advantage and is a major reason why our manufacturing workforce is considered among the best in the country.

For more information on the Indianapolis region's manufacturing enviroment please visit our web site.

Life Sciences Company Brings Headquarters to Indianapolis

2007-10-10T12:17:00.001-07:00

Arcadia Healthcare has announced plans to invest more than $3 million to relocate its national headquarters from Detroit to Indianapolis. The company says it will create more than 400 new jobs by 2010, hiring managers, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and sales staff.

Indianapolis Economic Development led the deal and the State of Indiana chipped in with a competitive incentive package.

The relocation of the company’s Southfield, Mich., corporate headquarters comes as it readies the national launch of DailyMed™, a drug packaging system that puts patients multiple prescription and over-the-counter medicines and vitamins into a roll of single dose packs labeled with the dates and times the patient should take the medications.

As part of its relocation to Indiana, Arcadia is developing a relationship with the state’s Family and Social Services Administration to market DailyMed™ to the more than 100,000 Medicaid recipients as well as the 1.7 million Hoosiers enrolled in Medicare.

This announcement comes at the heels of many other positive indicators in 2007 for Indiana's thriving life sciences environment which includes: Eli Lilly, Cook, Inc, Roche Diagnostics and Dow AgroSciences.

California-based Beckman Coulter Inc. announced that it will shutdown a centrifuge development and manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif., and move its operations to central Indiana. The Palo Alto facility employs 220 people. Related link
Enzon Pharmaceuticals says it is closing its manufacturing operations in South Plainfield, N.J., and moving them to the company's Indianapolis location, impacting about 50 employees. Related link
BIO and Battelle ranked Indianapolis #9 in total number of life sciences employees. Related Link
Oxford England-based, BioSignals, has chosen to move its Global Headquarters to Carmel, Indiana. Over the next five years, they will create over 120 jobs. Related link

For more information on the life sciences industry found in the Indianapolis region, please visit our web site.

Indiana University MBA Program Tops National List

2007-10-09T07:31:00.001-07:00

Indiana University in Bloomington, located just 40 miles south of Indianapolis, is known for big-time basketball and for having a wide-variety of curriculum. Now MSN.com is recognizing the Kelly School of Business MBA program, which ranked ahead of Harvard's MBA program in a recent article.

The Indianapolis region continues to support one of the best university environments found anywhere in the country. With nearly 60,000 total degrees awarded by public and private institutions from 2005-2006, the Indianapolis region is primed to support significant jobs growth the region has seen of the past year, with more than 9,000 new jobs coming to the area.

Further, the Indianapolis region is projected to award over 18,000 Five-Year Public Graduate Business School degrees over the next four years.

For more information on the higher education environment found in the Indianapolis region please visit the Indy Partnership web site.

Food Company Adds 1,000 New Jobs

2007-10-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

by Ted Evanoff, Indy Star

Stung by the loss of bus and auto-parts factories, east-central Indiana has landed what someday could be as many as 1,000 jobs cooking, packing, selling, shipping and dreaming up meals made of organic food.

Really Cool Foods LLC, an ambitious new supplier to Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and other grocers, said Wednesday that its main food preparation plant and U.S. operations office will locate on 52 acres.

The company, based in Manhattan, announced its plans at a news conference Wednesday near Cambridge City, a town of 2,000 in Wayne County about 55 miles east of Downtown Indianapolis.

Full story

Bioconvergence Adds New Jobs

2007-10-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA – October 4, 2007– BioConvergence LLC, a Bloomington, Indiana-based contract solutions provider to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, recently added seven new members to its staff, including three new management positions to serve its growing client base.

These additions bring the total to 25 with educational backgrounds which include high school, associate, bachelor, master, doctorate and post-doctoral graduates. The combined total years of pharmaceutical experience these individuals possess exceeds 200 years. This experience has and will continue to be key to starting client projects quickly and delivering quality results on time.

For more information on the life sciences industry in the Indianapolis region, please visit the Indy Partnership web site at www.indypartnership.com.

Source: Bioconvergence

Major Tool Adds 50 New Jobs

2007-10-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Major Tool & Machine, a leading engineering, fabrication and machining services company, announced today it will expand its operations here, creating more than 50 new jobs.

The family-owned company will invest $20 million to add 150,000 square feet of manufacturing space and automated production equipment to its eastside operations.

The expansion follows the company’s contract award to manufacture steel centrifuge casings for USEC’s new American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

For more information on manufacturing within the Indianapolis region, please visit the Indy Partnership web site.

Indy Real Estate Market Ranked Second on CNN

2007-09-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Indianapolis real estate market continues to receive national attention for its low cost real estate market. Earlier this year, Forbes ranked the Indianapolis region as the nation's most affordable and for seven straight quarters, the the National Association of Home Builers also had the Indianapolis MSA at the top of its list.

CNN's report discusses cities where the highest growth potential for real estate bounceback in 2008 and 2009.

For more data and information on the Indianapois region's housing market visit http://www.indypartnership.com/.

Hoosiers Public School Scores Rise

2007-09-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Indiana now ranks seventh in the nation for math at grade 4, up from 21st place two years ago. Indiana eighth graders come in 17th in the nation in math. That's unchanged from 2005.

In reading, Indiana ranks 27th in the nation at grade 4, up from 31st place two years ago. Indiana is 25th in grade 8 reading, up five places from two years ago.

Full release click here

For information on the Indianapolis region's education data please visit our web site at www.indypartnership.com and click on 'information warehouse.'

International Company Adds 300 Jobs

2007-09-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

Teleperformance USA is adding 300 call center jobs in Fishers, making it one of Hamilton County's largest employers.

The new employees for the outsourcing conglomerate, Teleperformance USA, will be paid about $9 an hour to answer customer phone calls for a telecommunications company.

The expansion will bring the number of employees at the Fishers site to 525 and increase the payroll to $11.5 million.

Full Indy Star Story

Cook Medical Continues to Grow

2007-09-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

Source: Cook Medical
Buoyed by the rapid worldwide success of its Women’s Health division and rising demand for products from its Urology division, Cook Urological, a Cook Medical company, will embark next year on an ambitious two-year expansion plan, company officials said today. The construction, which will double the existing manufacturing space, will begin in mid-2008 and should provide sufficient additional manufacturing capacity to meet anticipated sales growth for the next five years.

The expansion plan, which is still under review, will add approximately 50,000 square feet to the facility’s current footprint of 104,000 square feet. When completed, the remodeled plant will devote the majority of its space to manufacturing operations; some Cook Urological employees in marketing, administrative and other non-manufacturing positions will move to Cook Medical’s global headquarters on Bloomington’s westside to provide additional production space in Spencer.

Flodraulic Group Moves to Hancock County

2007-09-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Flodraulic Group, a national distributor of hydraulic, pneumatic, and lubrication components, announced today it will relocate its facility here to nearby Mount Comfort, creating 11 new jobs.

The company will invest more than $2.6 million to build and equip its expanded manufacturing and distribution center and will begin hiring additional sales and production staff in 2008.

Full story courtesy of INside Indiana Business

AT&T Continues to Fuel IT Growth

2007-09-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

AT&T will announce today plans to create 475 jobs in several communities across Indiana, sinking even more resources into expanding its Internet-based TV service.

Gov. Mitch Daniels will join AT&T Indiana President George Fleetwood in Anderson for the afternoon announcement.

AT&T spokeswoman Molly Cornbleet said the jobs will be for service technicians, responsible for installing U-verse and upgrading the company's fiber-optic network to handle video. U-verse is AT&T's brand of Internet Protocol TV, or IPTV, a method for transmitting television signals over a broadband Internet connection rather than a satellite dish or cable line.

Cornbleet declined to give specifics about which cities will get the jobs or what the U-verse technicians would be paid.

So far this year, AT&T has vowed to create about 1,000 jobs at call centers in Indianapolis and Evansville. Today's announcement will bring that total to nearly 1,500.

Zotec to Merge, Remain in Indianapolis

2007-09-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

Zotec Partners LLC announced today that it has merged with EmPhysis Medical Management, a leader in physician practice management for radiology, anesthesiology and pathology with corporate headquarters in Rockwall, TX and satellite offices in OK and CO. This is the third major announcement in the past five months for Zotec Partners; a solutions firm providing state-of-the art proprietary medical billing services and licensed software to hospital-based physician specialty practices across the U.S. Financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed.

Headquarters will remain in Indianapolis, IN, where Zotec Partners has been based for 9 years. Zotec Partners will service over 5,500 physicians across more than 44 states. The company is the exclusive Platinum Sponsor of the Radiology Business Management Association and is an active participant in the American Society of Anesthesiology and the College of Pathology. This partnership will come without interruption to clients.

Full Press Release from INside Indiana Business

Over 30,000 People Apply for Jobs at New Honda Plant

2007-09-13T05:50:00.000-07:00

Some 30,296 people filed online applications for the 2,000 production jobs expected to be available at the plant, Honda said. The number of applications is nearly three times the population of Greensburg, where the factory is being built.

"That's a huge number and this is very satisfying to us," said Honda spokesman David Iida. "Now, if Hoosiers produce cars with the same passion as they play basketball, we'll all be in great shape."

Honda plans to produce 200,000 Civic sedans a year after its new factory reaches full production. It is being built on 1,700 acres along Interstate 74 and is expected to open in the fall of 2008.

Full IBJ Story

Dow AgroSciences Aquires St. Louis Life Sciences Company

2007-09-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Chlorogen Inc., once one of the St. Louis region's most promising plant science startups, has ceased research operations and is selling off its technology, said President and Chief Executive David Duncan on Monday.

The company, based in Creve Coeur, announced it has sold to Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences LLC exclusive rights to its biotech crop technology for use in developing animal vaccines. Dow also has a non-exclusive right to use the approach in developing biotech crops.Financial terms were not disclosed, but Duncan said this is not the largest transaction Chlorogen expects as it winds down operations. Duncan, the only one remaining of the company's dozen employees, said he still hopes a "golden parachute" of funding will materialize to re-start operations — but he's pursuing the sale of its remaining technology assets.

Source: STLToday.com Full Article

Local Marketing Software Company Going Public

2007-09-10T06:55:00.001-07:00

The Indianapolis region is continuing to see a surge in software companies looking to expand and grow. In August, local e-learning software company, Angel Learning, announced an expansion which included the construction of a new headquarters building and plans to add 150 jobs by 2012.

Now Aprimo Incorporated, a global leader in providing software that accelerates marketing productivity, announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. Aprimo has applied to have its common stock listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “MKTG.”

Source: Aprimo Inc web site

Lauth to build distribution park in Plainfield

2007-09-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Lauth Property Group today announced it has closed on the land for one of area’s largest distribution parks. Westpoint Business Park will feature ten Class-A distribution buildings, totaling over 7.1 million square feet. Westpoint will be strategically located on 555 acres in the Plainfield submarket at I-70 and State Road 39.

It offers easy access to the I-70 and I-65 distribution corridors and the Indianapolis International Airport.

Click here to read full story from INside Indiana Business.

The Indy Partnership to sell the Indianapolis Region at CB Richard Ellis World Conference

2007-09-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

Indianapolis, IN (September 4, 2007) — Real estate brokers from across the world will be in Toronto at the 2007 CB Richard Ellis World Conference later this week. The Indy Partnership will share the benefits of doing business in the Indianapolis region with more than 3,100 CB Richard Ellis brokers and real estate executives.

“This conference is a great opportunity for the Indy Partnership to share information with a global real estate audience,” said Gordon Hendry, interim president and CEO of The Indy Partnership. “In promoting the Indianapolis region, we hope to bring more jobs and investment here.”

Prior to the conference, the Indy Partnership contacted conference attendees using e-marketer ExactTarget, one of the region’s growing companies assisted by the Indy Partnership in 2006. Highlighted were recent economic development successes such as Arbonne International, Beckman Coulter and Veolia Water.

David Reed, Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis/ Indianapolis assisted with the Indy Partnership’s participation in this leading real estate conference, including a booth on the trade show floor.

“We are pleased to have the Indy Partnership join us at this event to show the world why the Indianapolis area is a premier commercial real estate market,” said David Reed.

In June, the Indy Partnership hosted a CB Richard Ellis top life sciences broker at the U.S. Grand Prix. The Indy Partnership will join CB Richard Ellis’ international life sciences group during the conference along with other top executives of the company.

Attending the conference on behalf of the Indy Partnership are Hendry and Scott Fulford, Director of Business Development. Local economic development partners joining the Indy Partnership include:
Kristie McKillip from the Boone County Economic Development Corporation
Jeff Burt from the Hamilton County Alliance
Jeb Conrad from Indianapolis Economic Development
Bill Petranoff from Duke Energy

Duke Realty and Lauth Property Group, investors of the Indy Partnership, will also be attending the event.

The conference is scheduled for Wednesday, September 5th through Friday, September 8th. Former Vice President Al Gore will be the keynote speaker on Thursday.

For more information on the conference, please visit:

http://www.cbreevents.com/wc2007/index.cfm

Nestlé waters to create 60 new jobs, invest over $33 million

2007-09-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Indianapolis, IN (September 4, 2007) — Nestlé Waters announced that the company will open a new bottling facility in Greenwood, IN. Nestlé will invest over $33 million in the new facility and create 60 new jobs.

“Nestlé informed us in March of 2006 that it was considering a new location for its bottling operations. We met with them to find the best location in central Indiana for the facility,” said interim President and CEO Gordon Hendry. “We are pleased that a second major Nestlé division will invest in the Indianapolis region.”

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the Johnson County Development Corporation, and the City of Greenwood were instrumental in closing the deal through incentives offered to the company.

“After working with Nestle Waters for several months, I know they will be a good corporate citizen to the community. I am very excited that they chose Greenwood as their new base of operations,” said Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson.

Nestle will lease 215,000 square foot in a newly constructed facility located at 900 Commerce Parkway West Drive, and plans to invest nearly $2 million in improvements to the facility and nearly $30 million state of the art bottling equipment. The company will be directly connected to the Greenwood municipal water system where water will be transported via underground pipeline to the bottling facility.

When operational in 2008, the plant will produce up to 1 million bottles daily of Nestle Pure Life and Nestle Pure Life Naturally Favored Water.

The Indy Partnership was also actively involved in bringing a Nestlé facility to Anderson, IN during 2006, a project which will create 400 new jobs.