Ohio Rings in the New Millennium on a High-tech Note(cover) Boosting Technology Preparing the Work Force for the New Economy Tax Cuts, Deregulation Too Tempting to Resist Southwest Ohio Flourishes Northeast Ohio: A High-tech Star Northwest Ohio's Economic Boom Dayron, Xenia: Flying High Central Ohio: The Heart of Distribution Request Information |
Southwest Ohio Flourishes
One example of Ohio's ability to build on its strengths and diversify into other high-tech industries can be found in southwest Ohio. Despite a tight labor market in the 13-county Greater Cincinnati area, businesses continue to flock to the market. In 1999, the tri-state city saw some 200 new projects come online, "with the majority of them happening in the metropolitan area," says John Fonner, director of national marketing with the Partnership of Greater Cincinnati. "Hamilton County, where the city of Cincinnati is located, and Butler County, which is a northwestern suburban county, saw the majority of the projects."
Other headquarter moves include Dayton Technologies, a Belgium owned designer of vinyl window and door systems, which recently broke ground on its $12.5 million headquarters facility in Monroe, adding 100 new jobs. And Toyota Tsusho America moved its headquarters from New York to Florence. Toyota Tsusho is an auto parts supplier and sister company to Toyota Motor Corp.
Manufacturing, which has always been an economic staple in Cincinnati, also continues to do well. This is in part due to the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences (IAMS), one of the seven Ohio Edison Technology Centers, being located in the city. IAMS provides local manufacturers support and assists them in improving their manufacturing techniques and upgrading efficiencies.
"They're a great asset to the region," says Fonner. "They've been an important reason why manufacturing continues to be a strong component of our community. Unlike a lot of other communities, we've been able to maintain our manufacturing activities in the region, and we've had some nice expansions."
Taking advantage of this environment is A&P Technology, a manufacturer of braided reinforcement material. A&P Technology will open a $7.7 million facility in Clermont County, where it will employ 82 workers.
Being located on Interstate 75, I-71 and I-74 also makes Cincinnati a hot spot for distribution and warehousing. And, there's the rapidly expanding Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, which serves as a major cargo hub for DHL and FedEx. In fact, some of the area's largest announcements of late have been in the distribution/warehousing sector.
General Motors, for example, is developing a 352,000-sq.-ft. (32,702-sq.-m.) state-of-the-art distribution center in West Chester in the Union Centre Commerce Park, located at the rapidly growing Union Centre Boulevard/I-75 Interchange. The $40 million facility will employ 182 employees. West Chester won over competing sites in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Other distribution announcements include Isuzu Motor Corp.'s decision to build an $88 million, 615,000-sq.-ft. (57,135-sq.-m.) parts distribution center in Union Township, Butler County, to serve dealerships throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Isuzu chose the site over Indiana and Illinois locations.
Although Cincinnati, like most of Ohio, expects to continue growth in its primary industries, it is also looking to expand into more high-tech developments. The University of Cincinnati, for example, has established a biomedical and pharmaceutical incubator called BioStart, and Main Street Ventures, a non-profit group, was formed last year to transform Main Street in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine market into a mecca for high-tech companies.
Main Street Ventures serves as a support group and incubator that now includes more than 50 participating companies, including ZoomTown, a BroadWing Communications subsidiary; Deloitte & Touche; Taft, Stettinius and Hollister; Ethos Interactive; Digital Bank; Visual Net; and Conley, Canitano & Associates. The incubator's first success story is a startup company called Planetfeedback, which uses the Internet to pool consumer opinions and sell the information to companies. Main Street Ventures hopes to catapult Cincinnati into one of the top 15 high-tech areas in the country within the next two years.
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Cincinnati has been successful in winning projects in the R&D, manufacturing and headquarters arena -- or a combination of the three. "We're not only well suited for R&D, high-end manufacturing and headquarters," says Fonner, "but we're in that rare category of being able to attract combinations of them. We've got low costs and great infrastructure, so we're able to have a foot in each of those worlds. We have examples of that like MPG, which is headquartered here. They have all three types of operations -- manufacturing, R&D and headquarters."
"The [Union Centre Boulevard] is a terrific interchange," says Ray Culbert, manager of operations planning for General Motors Service Parts Operations. "I do searches all over the country, and we die for interchanges like that."