In the wake of being named the 2004 outstanding university research park by the Association of University Research Parks, Purdue Research Park (PRP) in December 2004 heralded the announcement of a new engineering design center from United Technologies' Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s outsourced design contract to New Jersey-based Butler International. Beginning with 40 employees in January 2005 in a section of the 111,000-sq.-ft. (10,312-sq.-m.) warehouse left vacant by Whirlpool Corp. in September 2001, Butler's West Lafayette operation could grow to as many as 200 by the end of the year.
      PRP and its 591 acres (239 hectares) continue to pile success on top of success. In addition to attracting a $1.2-million

Leaving Mexico for Indiana GE is sending transformer manufacturing jobs from Fort Wayne to Nogales, Mexico. It's also seeing the downsizing of the payroll at the Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning/Refrigeration Motor and Capacitor operation in Fort Wayne that it sold to Regal-Beloit, as well as a related pull-out from its wire mill operation there. This follows a wave of Whirlpool vacancies in the state and the region a few years ago. But Indiana is seeing at least some kickback refrigerated investment from the low-wage NAFTA neighbor to the south.       Galvamet America Corp., based in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, will open its first U.S. plant in a vacant 50,000-sq.-ft. (4,645-sq.-m.) spec building in Shelbyville, investing $7.3 million, adding 34,300 sq. ft. (3,187 sq. m.) and hiring some 40 people to start. The company makes insulated steel panels for use in cold-storage warehouses and other large refrigeration facilities. Incentives played a big role, as the state was competing with Ohio and Kentucky. Among the breaks is a 10-year property tax abatement.

federal grant for further development, the park is seeing several existing tenants expand. One is Cook Biotech, which in September 2004 opened a $7-million, 55,000-sq.-ft. (5,110-sq.-m.) manufacturing and R&D facility that could also bring an eventual 200 jobs. The company's tissue engineering technology was discovered at Purdue. A full 58 of the PRP's 104 businesses are high-tech endeavors. That includes another, gh development, that followed PRP's incubator model by graduating to its own headquarters in November 2004. The company markets a content-independent media conversion process to make print material more accessible to people coping with blindness, low vision, learning disabilities or other print disabilities. That product has appeal to clients like the IRS, among others.
      "At the rate we've been growing, we knew we had to find a location where the company could expand even further, while staying close to the university and the research park," said Dan Cravens, vice president for gh development. "Location is important because our ties with Purdue enable us to attract great employees, usually Purdue's information technology graduates who become familiar with gh through internships."
      Lafayette is also seeing the launch of a new engine assembly line at Caterpillar's 1.3-million-sq.-ft. (120,770-sq.-m.) plant in the city, with a multimillion-dollar investment that will keep its 1,400 area employees engaged in the company's next generation of commercial engine development. Caterpillar officials said Indiana's improved business climate, including the elimination of the inventory tax and other pro-business incentives, was instrumental in the decision.
      PRP was the state's first certified technology park (CTP), but it sure wasn't the last. Portions of tax revenues generated by tenants are reinvested into such parks and used for improvements, operation and maintenance of facilities, payment of interest and principal on bonds and other business-generating activities.
      Downtown Evansville now has the coveted CTP designation, created by the legislature in 2002. So does a 98,000-sq.-ft. (9,104-sq.-m.) former administrative facility in Kokomo that was donated to the Kokomo/Howard County Development Corp. by Delphi Electronics and Safety in late 2003. In November 2004, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Aleph Park in Terre Haute received the designation. Another project seeking CTP status is the 325-acre (132-hectare) commerce park in Crawfordsville, a half-hour south of Lafayette. And Martin, Greene and Daviess Counties, all surrounding the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center southwest of Bloomington, hope to combine three separate CTP properties.