ANGOLA — Trine University hopes a $28 million project to promote development of new business in Steuben County will receive the same support from local officials it has received at the state level.
Trine’s plan asks the county to spend $13.9 million of Major Moves money it received in 2006 from the lease of the Indiana Toll Road. Trine would match the investment dollar-for-dollar.
The university and county would join in a project to encourage new businesses, with specific emphasis on biotech and orthopedic companies. The plan would create the Rhoads Center for Entrepreneurship, Technology Commercialization Lab, Bock Biomedical Engineering Center and Biomechanics/Movement Science Center.
Monday at 9 a.m., the Steuben County Commissioners will consider approving a memorandum of understanding endorsing the project. The Steuben County Council has scheduled a special meeting Tuesday to consider the memorandum.
Trine University senior vice president Mike Bock said supporters of the project include Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana Secretary of Commerce Mitchell Roob Jr.; Jerry Israel, president emeritus of the University of Indianapolis; Lakeland High School, Fremont Community Schools, the Town of Fremont, ONE (Ortho Northeast) and OrthoWorx, a Warsaw-based, industry, community and education initiative established to advance and support growth of the region’s orthopedics-device sector.
“Any initiative like yours that is designed creatively to stimulate economic growth and innovation is good for all Hoosiers,” Daniels wrote in a letter to Trine University president Earl D. Brooks II. “I’m particularly impressed that your plan focuses on the growth of the biomedical business that already exists in northeast Indiana and is so very important to Indiana’s overall economic health.”
“We can invest in roads, shovel-ready industrial sites and other initiatives, but your plan of providing the necessary resources to take an idea to market is one that will generate and even greater return on the initial investment,” Roob wrote in his letter of support.
Israel described the project as a “dramatic new venture that will help create jobs and increase tax revenues while enhancing both the campus and the community.”
Israel continued, “The partnerships envisioned between Trine and Steuben County — creating a center of innovation and a pipeline for workers in the biomedical and orthopedics industries — will build on the intellectual capital at Trine while driving economic and cultural development throughout Steuben County.
He added, “The valuable investment of private and public funds into collaborations being discussed among county economic development leaders will help attract new businesses, increase tax revenues and create jobs for local residents.”
Bock said Trine has received letters of intent from five companies that will set up business in Steuben County if the initiative goes forward.
One of the companies — an RV manufacturer — has an idea for a sub-assembly, but does not have the engineering design expertise or the knowledge of how to take the idea to market, Bock said.
“We would design the product, we’d manufacture the prototypes, we’d help them take that product to market, we’d help patent that product, and then he, in return, he has committed that these sub-assemblies would be built here in Steuben County — again, creating jobs,” Bock said.
Another company — a software firm — needs help with business planning, incubation and funding resources, Bock explained. The company eventually would employ 30 people earning an average salary of $90,000, Bock added.
An asphalt company is developing a new product, and Trine would be involved in its testing, Bock said.
“He has committed, as well, as this product launches, to do this in Steuben County,” Bock said.
A fourth company is using bamboo in the development of a new building material that would be used to manufacture railroad ties.
The fifth business to issue a letter of intent to locate in Steuben County if the project proceeds is a biomedical company.
“One of the key resources we provide in all of these is the strength of our engineering program,” Brooks said.
The memorandum of understanding to be considered Monday and Tuesday sets out an aggressive development timeline, with design and engineering to begin in March and construction to begin in May.
”We’ve got enough confidence in it that we’re matching, dollar for dollar, up to $14 million. That’s a big investment for us, but that’s how confident we are that it will work and it’s a multiplier,” Brooks said.
Steuben County Council member Sara Tubergen said the project will have a spin-off effect.
“If we bring in high-paying jobs, these people are going to be eating in our restaurants, shopping in our stores, having their cars maintained. They’re going to be spending money here, and there will be other jobs created because of this,” she said.
Chris Snyder, president of the Steuben County Economic Development Corp., noted that the initiative is Trine’s response to the economic development agency’s strategic plan.
“It (the strategic plan) was the work of 100 to 150 individuals throughout the county. These were their thoughts. … Now we are following that route,” he said.
“This is the people’s plan. … It is definitely from the community. It’s what the community wants,” Tubergen agreed.
Bock said Monday’s action by the commissioners is crucial to the project.
“If Steuben County says ‘no’ on Monday, the deal is dead — so we would hope that they would allow us to take this next step in putting together a definitive agreement, which we believe would go back and further define the pieces that fit within this plan, including a line-item budget and some other things,” Bock said.
“We are going to be going to our board on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a recommendation based on what feedback we get — starting with Monday and then probably on into Tuesday,” Brooks said. “If it is not favorably inclined to move forward in a very fast manner, we’re going to pull away, very simply, from the standpoint we’ve invested a lot of time and energy and resources in it.
“We’re an educational institution, prepared to support economic development,” Brooks said. “If they are not interested in moving forward, then we’re going to look at other options or alternatives for us to move forward.”
Brooks concluded, “To boil it all down, we’re trying to create jobs. … The time for us is now. If we wait and we try to come and revisit this in a year or two, other people are going to be down the path, and we”re going to be too late. The time is now, and we need some bold leadership to help move us forward.”