Hamilton County Alliance e-News

HCA Prospect Activity

The most fundamental aspect of any economic development program is its ability to find new and existing businesses with growth plans. Over the past five years, nearly 70 percent of new Hamilton County job creation has come from existing businesses. At present, the Alliance is working with 19 companies on their expansion plans. Fourteen of these businesses have identified new job creation or new capital investment. Last year, Alliance assisted projects created 470 new jobs. That number should be exceeded in 2006. Geographically, we are seeing activity throughout much of the county with 6 projects in Carmel, 5 in Fishers, 7 in Noblesville and 2 businesses in Westfield.

2006 Marketing

The advent of a new calendar year brought a new marketing strategy for the Alliance. In assessing effectiveness and value, Alliance data are showing that print advertising is becoming more expensive and the returns more elusive. As a result, the Alliance eliminated print advertising in out-of-state locations and stepped-up its marketing efforts geared to direct sales, electronic outreach, and special events. These efforts will be in high gear over the next 5 months with sales missions to New York, Southern California, Chicago, and Atlanta or Florida. We are starting work on an electronic marketing piece that will be ready in July. The Alliance participated in Bio2006 in Chicago. Bio has become the largest life science expo in the U.S. and represents an excellent marketing opportunity for Hamilton County and metro Indianapolis.

Headquarters Marketing

One of the principal attraction targets for the Alliance is that of corporate headquarters. To that end, the Alliance recently retained the Boyd Company of Princeton, NJ to prepare a report that considers geographically-variable operating costs for a Hamilton County location compared to 14 other leading suburban markets. The study shows Hamilton County's cost structure to be the second lowest. Columbus, Ohio produced an operating cost structure that is 1.8 percent lower. The study presumes 250 nonexempt employees in a 50,000 square facility. The model considers costs associated with labor, electricity, real estate, construction, taxes, heating and air conditioning, and travel.

Ranking of Comparative Operating Costs

(High to Low)

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Los Angeles
4. Boston
5. Chicago
6. Detroit
7. Seattle
8. Philadelphia
9. Denver
10. St. Louis
11. Phoenix
12. Cleveland
13. Hamilton Co./Indianapolis
14. Columbus

The Alliance will be using the study as a marketing piece for its direct sales missions. The report will be posted on the Alliance website.

Website Redesign

The Alliance has retained Bitwise Solutions to redesign its website. This will be a major undertaking as the website will become a portal for all topics related to selling Hamilton County to out-of-market businesses. Some of the changes include more demographics, improved navigation, entrepreneurship assistance HCA performance measurements, event registration, a new ticker and more. Work should be completed by the end of the year but improvements will be incremental. The new design should provide the platform for Alliance and overall economic development growth for several years to come.

Comparatively Speaking

Hamilton County is one of 3,141 U.S. counties. The county has many outstanding qualities. A look at the latest available national data validates this point. The county ranks 20th in its growth rate (121%) since 1990. Similarly, Hamilton County ranks 18th in its growth rate (32%) between 2000 and 2005. Median household income ($80,691) shows the county ranking 6th in the U.S. Hamilton County's educational attainment for bachelor degrees or better (49%) has the county ranking 14th. The county's percent of jobs coming from the finance and insurance sector (12%) ranks 12th. American City Business Journals shows the county's quality of life ranking 8th.

Among Indiana's 92 counties, Hamilton County sets the pace. The county ranks 1st in several categories (population growth since 1990, per capita and median household income, high school graduates and bachelor degrees or better, and the percent of jobs from the finance and insurance sector). The county ranks among the top 10 in eight other categories such as total population, total employment, lowest unemployment rate, and average wage per job. Finally, in the past year, Noblesville and Fishers received national recognition as great places to live. Carmel was a designated community in a previous list. Hamilton County is unique among counties in having three communities gain this distinction. This type of recognition assists Alliance and community economic development efforts.

Entrepreneurship Initiative

Work continues and progress is being made on the entrepreneurship initiative. The Alliance is discussing the initiative with each of the county's six school districts. The Alliance has offered a textbook, a mini grant to each district to support their entrepreneurship curricula and other resources to supplement new or existing entrepreneurship efforts. The Alliance will be co-hosting a June seminar for high school business teachers. The Alliance has retained Ball State's Entrepreneurship Center to instruct the teachers on specific aspects of entrepreneurship curricula; creating financial models, generating ideas, developing business concepts, and assessing market feasibility. Three local entrepreneurs will also participate. County school districts are leaders in business and entrepreneurship programs. The Alliance is focusing its efforts in supplementing existing school district capabilities and adding new resources to the student entrepreneurship experience.