By Mike Lewis, Times-Mail
BEDFORD - State and local officials joined SAIC executives Wednesday to announce a new facility in part of the former Visteon building on 16th Street. SAIC's operations in this area are focused on the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center.
"I believe this is the beginning of great things to come in Bedford," said Mayor Shawna Girgis. The initial work force will total about 60.
"It's going to ebb and flow, depending on what we're doing," said Robert Evans, the division manager in charge of the facility.
SAIC workers install and update communications equipment and various sensors on Humvees and do other maintenance work, filling orders from Crane.
SAIC has grown from roughly 100 Indiana employees in 2001 to more than 1,000 today. SAIC has added more than 100 people each of the past four years. A Fortune 500 company with 45,000 employees and a headquarters in San Diego, SAIC will lease 55,000 square feet of the East Gate Business and Technology Center, the retrofitted Visteon plant that once employed about 1,000 people.
Tri-Star Engineering, which employs some 260 people and does work for Crane, also occupies part of the former Visteon plant. Still, some 200,000 square feet is available.
Dave Seckinger, SAIC senior vice president and operations manager, hinted that the space and the local work force were among the attractions.
"SAIC will look for every opportunity to further expand in this facility," he said.
Evans added that the work can be even more basic, such as repairing the vehicles' large, run-flat tires. Both said the new facility will allow the company the flexibility to deal with a wide array of tasks.
"We can reconfigure," Evans said. "Tomorrow we could be doing something else."
In March, the company celebrated the grand opening of its 37,000-square-foot office and laboratory facility in the WestGate at Crane Technology Park. That facility serves as Seckinger's headquarters, and more than 200 professionals work there. SAIC signed a five-year lease for the facility.
Crane NWSC is one of the state's largest employers and reinvests $1.3 million daily in Indiana, according to the formal announcement issued today.