Development News From Southwest Indiana

West Gate @ Crane Tech Park Primed For Growth
InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report, 7/29/2005
Economic development officials in southern Indiana say they expect a surge in new business and jobs when the West Gate @ Crane Technology Park opens in 2006.

Science Applications International Corp., one of the largest contractors at the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, says it expects to create 100 new jobs within the first few years at the park.

Crane says it predicts robust job and economic growth for Crane-related development, including the creation of more than 150 new jobs and the potential of an additional $34 million in Indiana commercial contracts.
Source: Inside INdiana Business

Press Release
LOOGOOTEE (Indiana) – Quality job growth in the Crane region “will likely surge” once initial facilities at the West Gate @ Crane Technology Park open their doors in 2006, according to Jerry Ott, executive director of the Martin County Economic Development Corporation. Ott, who was appointed as Martin County’s first economic development official this month, based his remarks on data provided by executives from the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and EG&G, a subsidiary of the $2 billion URS corporation.

Stephen Gootee, corporate vice president over SAIC operations in Crane and Indianapolis, said that the opening of the West Gate “will create a new synergy for the region that will attract new companies and offer heretofore new opportunities for commercial expansion that presently don’t exist.” SAIC, the nation’s seventh largest defense contractor with revenues in excess of $7 billion, employs more than 500 engineers, consultants and technicians in Indiana and is one of the largest contractors at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) at Crane. SAIC now has 30 job openings for Information Technology consultants, engineers and logistics professionals in the Crane region.

Gootee said that SAIC alone expects to create about 100 new jobs within 12-24 months of the West Gate opening. Conservatively, the SAIC positions will generate $5-7 million of new rural wealth, with additional jobs and ancillary growth expected to be created by other technology companies expanding in the Crane region. “The jobs that SAIC now has open and expects to create are precisely the types of high-paying professional positions that both the state and the local counties seek,” said Ron Arnold, executive director of the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation and chairman of the West Gate @ Crane executive committee. “The challenge that all three counties face is that until facilities are actually in place, the West Gate remains somewhat of an abstract ‘potential’ to large technology companies,” said Ott. As a result of this, Arnold said, all three counties were presently intensely focusing on new construction and the formal opening of the park. The Indianapolis office of CB Richard Ellis successfully solicited construction proposals for initial West Gate buildings, and a contractor is expected to be selected shortly for a Fall groundbreaking.

“Since Martin County first began exploring the process a few years ago, numerous Crane officials, technology professionals and economic development experts with Purdue and Rose Hulman have all told us that the Crane region could well take its place among premier technology centers in the state,” Arnold continued. “Now is the time to achieve that vision.”

“With BRAC nearly behind us, essentially the only barriers to solid job creation and growth for the region that remain are the present lack of quality commercial facilities and final resolution of Certified Technology Park issues from the state for the three counties,” explained James Schonberger, managing director of EG&G operations at Crane.

EG&G plans to initially occupy over 25,000 sq. ft in the first West Gate facility to be built in the Daviess County section, and SAIC intends to occupy similar space in facilities to be constructed immediately adjacent in Martin County. Construction of the two technical facilities and an office complex for use by Purdue, Rose Hulman and other academic institutions, are expected to take place at the same time.

“SAIC and EG&G represent the two largest current omnibus contracts with NSWC Crane, so they offer substantial commercial growth opportunities for the West Gate as Crane successfully lands new technology contracts in the post-BRAC era,” said Charles Dibble, executive director of the Greene County Economic Development Corporation. The proposed route for the I-69 region will transverse Greene County and a major interchange is expected to be located immediately next to the Greene County section of the West Gate tech park.

“Many people don’t realize that NSWC Crane represents one of the largest high-tech TDL [transportation, distribution and logistics] operations in Indiana,” said Dibble.

“The commercial TDL expansion opportunities alone could well transform the region once we have facility infrastructure in place,” he said.

Arnold pointed out that the official median center of the U.S. population lies within a few miles of the West Gate tech park, “which eloquently illustrates the extraordinary TDL opportunities that exist long-term for the region.”

NSWC Crane officials have previously publicly predicted robust job and economic growth for Crane-related development in a post-BRAC era, including the creation of more than 150 new jobs and the potential of an additional $34 million in Indiana commercial contracts.

“We urgently need and expect to create those jobs here and leverage the positive impact of regional economic growth for Indiana,” said Arnold.

Graham Toft, an economist and consultant with Thomas P. Miller & Associates, said that the West Gate region “offers Indiana a singular opportunity to build an environmentally-friendly ‘technopolis’ that will be unique to the nation.” Such an opportunity, Toft claims, “is one of a kind and potentially historic in nature—it would be a shame if we do not capture this opportunity to both create strong economic growth and to do it right for the region and the state.”

A substantial amount of collaborative effort has brought the counties to this critical point, said Don Bowling, Mayor of Loogootee.

“Each county has contributed considerable financial and human resources to bring this park to life,” said Mayor Bowling.

“The degree of cooperation between the counties is unprecedented in Indiana modern history,” he concluded. “We must make this happen and happen soon.”

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