By Howard Greninger
TERRE HAUTE — Vigo County seems poised for growth in the manufacturing sector in coming years.
Two hundred acres may be designated soon as a state shovel-ready site in the county’s industrial park. That acreage coupled with three adjacent soon-to-be-acquired manufacturing properties — totaling 845 acres — will have Vigo County poised for long-term manufacturing growth, economic development officials say.
In addition, a more-than-7,000-acre site along the Vigo/Clay county line could provide a unique “megasite” development opportunity in the Wabash Valley.
Earlier this month, Pfizer announced it planned to sell its former Exubera manufacturing site to the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission for $1.1 million. The selling price includes three parcels totaling 845 acres and 383,000 square feet of manufacturing facilities, including a 90,000-square-foot weather-tight shell office building, a facility that has not been completely finished inside. Officials planned to complete the sale by this Wednesday.
The sale also includes about one mile of railroad that currently serves Danisco USA Inc., a food sweetener company. Pfizer plans to close its antibiotics plant, a 251,000-square-foot facility on 90 acres not included in the sale to Vigo County, in the second quarter of 2010. The company shut down its Exubera production in January.
Rick Jenkins, chairman of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp. and vice president of the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission, said the Pfizer property gives the county a unique opportunity.
“We will have control, the county, about selling the property. If we have someone willing to bring jobs to Terre Haute, we are willing to sell it to them. We don’t have to worry about being in competition with another company. That is why I think it is important we have control of the land,” Jenkins said.
“We have also spent probably $1.5 million upgrading that rail, which we don’t own, and now we will own it. We are buying back something that we fixed up,” he said.
“If you look at our industrial park, compared to other industrial parks around the area, we have a top-notch industrial area. We have looked at how to grow that without condemning somebody’s property and now we don’t have to worry about doing that,” he said.
Jenkins said companies, while still in a national recession, are not moving quickly on expansions or new development. However, he remains optimistic of the future. “That has got to turn around. We can’t keep going down. The United States is the number-one country in the world and we feel like we are one of the number one cities in the Midwest, and with this, we have more to offer.”
Manufacturing represents 16.3 percent of all jobs in Vigo County, with an average wage per job of $49,241, according to STATS Indiana, through the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. The statistics are as of July 27.
That’s higher than Monroe County, where manufacturing accounts for 11.7 percent of all jobs with an average wage per job of $42,811. However, it is lower than Tippecanoe County, which has manufacturing plants for Subaru and Toyota. Manufacturing in Tippecanoe County represents 18.8 percent of all jobs and the average wage per job is $55,694.
Statewide, manufacturing represents 18.3 percent of all jobs, with a statewide average wage per job of $52,373.
Vigo County is already home to several Fortune 500 manufacturing companies such as two General Electric facilities of Unison Engine Components and Tri-Remanufacturing; Sony DADC; ThyssenKrupp Presta; CertainTeed, which is part of Saint-Gobain; Novelis; Aisin Seiki; and Staples.
Some of the largest manufacturing employers include Sony DADC with 1,350 workers; Bemis with 890; Unison Engine Components with 377; Aisin Brake & Chassis with 330; Ivy Hill with 271; CSN, a cold-roll steel finishing plant with 208; Ampacet, a plastic compounding plant with 206; and Novelis, an aluminum foil plant with 205, according to 2009 first-quarter figures from the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp.
“Manufacturing is not going away,” said Steve Witt, president of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp.
“I think a lot of people believe that manufacturing is a dying sector and we’re all just going to exchange information and provide services to each other. I don’t buy that, particularly in this community. We make things and we’re pretty darn good at it,” Witt said.
“Our charge as a community is to find new opportunities that we can bring manufacturers to the community and provide more employment opportunities for our residents,” he said.
Vigo County officials hope to learn soon if 200 acres in the Vigo County Industrial Park will be designated as a statewide shovel-ready site for development. The state has certified 48 sites since 2006.
The 200-acre site is on the southwest corner of the industrial park, about 5 miles south of Terre Haute. The county’s industrial park has about 400 total acres available for development, but having a state-certified site would hold a marketing advantage.
“When you have an industrial prospect come in, you can show that you have already done a lot of due diligence for them. We have already done geotechnical studies, performed a phase one environmental study, a wetlands report, and we’ve told them where all utilities’ lines are and how they can access those,” Witt said.
Indiana’s Shovel Ready program is administered by the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which certifies sites as ready for development. The program, started in 2006, cuts state permitting time by up to 30 percent and lowers the cost of site development. To be certified, a site has to undergo an environmental assessment, have clearly identified property ownership, infrastructure and a demonstrated local commitment to expedited local permitting.
Since 2007, Witt has been working with CSX Transportation on a special designation for property near the Vigo/Clay county line. Similar to a shovel-ready site, CSX calls its program “large industrial mega-site” certification. The 7,000-acre site — once proposed for use as an inland port, but that effort failed in the Legislature — has more than 5,000 acres of reclaimed (to a high standard) surface mine, and just more than 2,000 acres of undisturbed land.
“Most of the property is in Clay County, but most of the utilities are in Vigo County. The railroad [connection] is in Vigo County. It is certainly property that has potential,” Witt said, as the property is close to Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field and bordered by Interstate 70.
“We have submitted about all the information required,” Witt said of the certification. “It has been done in three parts over the last two years and we just submitted the last part, which was an endangered species study, done by Clay County through grant money.”
Clay County received a $200,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, part of which paid for a survey to determine any impact to the endangered Indiana bat.
The site, largely owned by Resource Landholdings LLC of Colorado Springs, Colo., is about five miles from the closest water connection. The most recent cost estimate from Indiana-American Water Co. to extend water to the site is about $1.3 million. As for wastewater treatment, it depends on the project, Witt said.
“It could be some sort of on-site treatment,” Witt said, “or an extension of a major sewer line from the Terre Haute wastewater treatment plant” or even an extension from a smaller line from the airport.
Witt said he expects the site could be a CSX-certified megasite by year’s end, making it the only such certified site in Indiana.
Rick Burger, Terre Haute area manager for Duke Energy, said the North Carolina-based utility has site-specific consultants for industry, which can “really start to market [the Pfizer and later the megasite] property heavy and hard, and that is how Duke Energy can be another player,” he said.
“I think you have to look at economic development as a region,” Burger said, adding that a former military base near Newport in Vermillion County has potentially 7,000 acres that could be converted to industrial use sometime in the future.
“Manufacturing in Terre Haute, to me, is really diversified. If you compare Lafayette, Indiana, they are strong in Subaru and other automotive areas. We have Sony, with Blu-ray, AET in plastics, Ampacet, CSN, which is steel, Danisco and Bemis.
“Duke Energy tries to do what I call protecting home base. You have jobs and have to work with your current people. If you can get expansions, that is what you need to do,” he said.
Duke Energy provides economic development services, including aerial site and building photographs; site and building portfolios; utility data, including reliability, capacity, rate calculations and incentive rate information; and specialized information to suit client requirements, Burger said.
Vigo County also has other sites open for development, Witt said.
There are more than two-thirds of a 152-acre Fort Harrison Business Park available for development, on the northeast corner of North Fruitridge Avenue and Steelton Road.
“Rail is very expensive to build, so that is why Fort Harrison works pretty well for a smaller company to go and build a rail siding off existing rail rather economically,” Witt said.
Both Burger and Witt say they remain optimistic about new job opportunities in the future.
“I think 2010 could be another flat-line year, in my opinion. But if it is a flat-line year in 2010, with no more downs, that is good. You want to hold your base and hopefully we’ll see a stronger year in 2011,” Burger said.
Witt said economic development involves a constant change of new companies and older businesses closing.
“As a community, we can’t just maintain the status quo, because if we do, we are actually going backward, because other communities will be moving forward. Companies will come and go, that is just a fact of life,” Witt said. “Because of the fact that we compete in a world economy, things are more global in nature, perhaps more than they were 30 years ago. The rate of change with regard to companies coming into the community and exiting will be more frequent than they used to be, and that is why we’re always recruiting new industries and working with companies we have to grow.”
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
Impact on the Valley
Manufacturing represents 16.3 percent of all jobs in Vigo County, with an average wage per job of $49,241, according to STATS Indiana, through the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
The statistics are as of July 27.
Percentage of manufacturing jobs by county
Vigo County 16.3 percent
Monroe County 11.7 percent
Tippecanoe County 18.8 percent
Indiana statewide 18.3 percent
Source: STATS Indiana, through the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
Average wage per manufacturing job
Vigo County $49,241
Monroe County $42,811
Tippecanoe County $55,694
Indiana statewide $52,373
Source: STATS Indiana, through the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
The statistics are as of July 27.
Vigo County manufacturers by employment
Sony DADC 1,350 workers
Bemis 890 workers
Unison Engine Components 377 workers
Aisin Brake & Chassis 330 workers
Ivy Hill 271 workers
CSN 208 workers
Ampacet 206 workers
Novelis 205 workers
Source: 2009 figures from the
Terre Haute Economic Development Corp.
