By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
At least three companies are considering Johnson County as a place to either build a new business or move into a vacant building, possibly bringing hundreds of jobs.
One company is looking for a 70-acre site outside the Greensburg area.
The company doesn't want to compete with the new Honda plant for workers, said Joe Scimia, an attorney with Indianapolis-based Baker & Daniels.
Scimia, who is helping the business search for a site, wouldn't identify the company or what it does.
Johnson County is one of the areas the business is considering, he said.
"It would be a nice business for anybody to have," he said.
Scimia helps company officials find out more about communities, such as the available work force, housing and schools.
That job is also done by local officials and the Johnson County Development Corp.
Since January, the development corporation has gotten about 60 calls and e-mails from businesses or consultants for companies seeking more information about the area, said Cheryl Morphew, executive director of the corporation.
For about 30 of those, Johnson County met the specifications of the company, such as available land and infrastructure, she said.
Franklin Mayor Brenda Jones-Matthews said that in the past week she has sent letters to two interested manufacturing companies that want to know more about the city and any possible incentives for locating there.
When businesses request those letters, it usually means that Johnson County is a finalist in their search, Morphew said.
With construction started on a new Honda plant less than 40 miles away in Decatur County, local officials said there isn't a rush on advertising Johnson County, but there are added opportunities.
Johnson County will be included in a regional map with 10 other central Indiana counties put out by the Indy Partnership with the hopes of recruiting Honda suppliers, Morphew said.
More advertising could be a good idea for the city, Jones-Matthews said.
But Morphew said she isn't focused on advertising and will continue to maintain the development corporation's Web site, which is less expensive.
Much of the process of communicating with companies is kept secret.
Morphew would not say how many companies currently consider Johnson County as a finalist because many businesses seek confidentiality in the process, she said.
In most cases, when Jones-Matthews sends a letter to a business, she doesn't know the identity of the company and is addressing her letter to a code name or number, she said.
Officials followed that process when Honda was interested in locating in Greensburg, keeping the identity of the company quiet for months.
Rumors have been circulating that the tire manufacturer Michelin USA was interested in locating in the county. Morphew and Jones-Matthews said they have had no contact with the company, and a Michelin spokesman denied the rumors.
David Neuman, director of the Decatur County area plan commission, said he heard that Michelin decided to go to Franklin after meeting resistance in his area. He wouldn't say who gave him the information but said it was someone who works with Michelin.
Morphew and Jones-Matthews said they didn't know of any Honda suppliers interested in coming to Johnson County. Both attended the groundbreaking ceremony at the Honda plant this week, where they met state and company officials, Jones-Matthews said.
She is interested in placing more advertisements in magazines and on Web sites about the city and what it can offer, she said.
"We're a great location," she said. "We need to communicate what we have."
The city should promote the fact that several sites are ready for a company to build on and Franklin has offered incentives to companies in the past, she said.
Morphew said her job with the development corporation is two-fold: recruiting new businesses and keeping existing businesses in the county.
Retaining businesses is just as important and can have as much a payoff as bringing new companies, she said.
She cited KYB Manufacturing North America as an example. The Franklin manufacturing company recently received tax breaks for more than doubling their building space and planning to hire 50 more employees over the next three years.
As for new businesses, she plans to work with the Indy Partnership, a nonprofit organization that focuses on bringing economic development to central Indiana, and to keep the development corporation's Web site up to date.
She doesn't plan to advertise or send out mailings to potential Honda suppliers at this point, she said.
Advertising is expensive, and the corporation doesn't have the money for it, she said. And seeking out Honda suppliers also is difficult because there is no master list, she said.
The corporation is funded by a mixture of membership dues from local businesses and contributions from local governments.
The Web site is effective, she said. Companies pay attention to Web sites, and the corporation gets calls often from businesses or consultants who have looked on the Web site and want more information, she said.