Throughput is at the heart of the Philadelphia metro's project success too. So are the food and pharmaceutical industries, whose presence continues to undergird the entire region's economy.
   All of those trends were in evidence in early January 2006 when Alcoa Flexible Packaging (AFP) announced its decision to consolidate operations from Rhode Island and Illinois at a site in Downington, Pa., in Chester Co. on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
   "This move will allow Alcoa to invest in a new, medical packaging industry standard Class 100,000 Clean Room within a plant that already has an established track record servicing the pharmaceutical community as well as other key markets," said Bimal A. Kalvani, AFP president. "Consolidating in a single Northeast corridor facility will allow us to build on existing manufacturing strengths in Downingtown, tap into a skilled Pennsylvania workforce and focus on growth."
   With the help of $1.1 million in incentives from the state, AFP will add 140 jobs to the current 200-strong work force in Downington, while eliminating 192 total jobs from the two closing operations. The Downington facility has been in operation for approximately 20 years, providing printed blister lidding material for the pharmaceutical industry, as well as shrink sleeves, confectionery and other food-related packaging.
   Some more of that confectionery packaging may be in order for Philadelphia candy maker Frankford Candy & Chocolate Co., which is investing $23 million in a 500,000-sq.-ft. (46,450-sq.-m.) headquarters, distribution and manufacturing complex in Philly proper, on a 25-acre (10-hectare) site formerly home to a Crown Cork & Seal operation. Primarily a chocolate manufacturer, the company has grown its confectionery business too, through licensing of products made by others.
   The move will consolidate the company's five sites around the city, with 250 employees shifting their commutes to the Frankford area of northeast Philly. According to published reports, communities in the Lehigh County, central Pennsylvania and south New Jersey had recruited the company over the past three years, and while their incentive offers were higher than that offered by their hometown, staying home was a primary consideration.
   The consolidation will be aided, however, by a loan from the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC), formed in 1958 by the city and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce to promote economic development, primarily through the leveraging of real estate and financing resources.
   The capital invested by Frankford is nearly equivalent to the amount invested by leading packager Crown when it moved its headquarters several years ago from the site to a new complex in northeast Philadelphia. Crown too was loath to leave its birthplace.