By Tim Vandenack, Truth Staff
tvandenack@etruth.com
Think North America Inc. has been eyeing Elkhart County as a potential site of its U.S. manufacturing plant since at least February of last year.
That's when Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder first learned of the Norwegian electric automaker's interest in locating here.
Things waned after two or three months of on-and-off discussions and there they sat until last November, he said. Now all of a sudden, the action is getting fast and furious, with more than 400 new jobs in the balance.
Last December, company leaders came to Goshen to formally request a property tax abatement package on a potential site for the new plant north of Middlebury. The Elkhart County Council granted preliminary approval.
Then negotiations between the company and the Middlebury building's owners broke down, and the Elkhart City Council granted initial approval Monday for a tax phase-in to bring the firm to a different site in Elkhart.
"It's all happened quick," said Yoder.
Amid it all, the Economic Development Corp. of Elkhart County invited the EDC board of directors to a press conference at 2 p.m. today at an industrial site in Elkhart that Gov. Mitch Daniels will attend. Think's plans to invest $43.5 million and employ 415 are to be the apparent focus.
If the governor is coming, "that is very good news," Yoder said.
The governor's office was mum, pointing only to his official schedule, which has him in East Chicago at 4:30 p.m. today to discuss a bridge project. Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore, though, said Daniels is scheduled to fly into the Elkhart Municipal Airport sometime Monday to attend the press conference.
Likewise, Think spokesman Brendan Prebo side-stepped comment on whether a final decision on the firm's U.S. plans was in the offing.
"I can't confirm that, but I would say to stay tuned and hopefully we'll have an announcement," Prebo said.
At any rate, a formal announcement from Think to locate here shouldn't come as a complete shock.
Think officials have indicated strong interest in Indiana and when he was here for the December vote by the county council, Prebo said the company was looking at multiple sites in Elkhart County. The company makes electric, two-door passenger cars and its plans here would call for development of a plant next year that would initially produce 2,500 of the vehicles per year and employ 415 by 2013.
The company's auto, the Think City, "is really one of the first highway-ready, fully functioning electric vehicles," Think North America's Chief Financial Officer Tom Kemeny told the Elkhart County Council last December. "There is no tail pipe. There are no emissions."
The plans for the plant north of Middlebury called for an annual payroll of $13.8 million per year, or $33,253 for each of the 415 workers. Yoder didn't have particulars on the apparent proposal in the city of Elkhart.
Either way, though, he said the county still would be potentially involved in Think's plans if they pan out here. The county has power to grant private companies access to low-interest bonding authority available under a federal economic stimulus program and Think has expressed interest in taking part.
Think manufacturers the Think City in Finland for the European market, but company officials see demand in the United States for an electric auto.
It wouldn't be the first electric vehicle manufacturer in Elkhart County. Navistar International Corp. plans to build electric trucks in Wakarusa and Electric Motor Corp. also proposes building electric-hybrid vehicles here.