Efforts to enhance Indiana's economic base with advanced technology
industries are taking root. But don't write off the traditional industries just yet.

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t's hard to find signs of the national economic slowdown in the Hoosier State. By most measures, plans to migrate Indiana's economy from one that is manufacturing-based to a technology-based economy are not being stymied by slower growth. Nor are the state's traditional industries throwing in the towel. To the contrary, Indiana businesses exported a record US$16.5 billion in goods to international markets in 2000, an 18 percent increase over the previous year.
      State agencies have put in motion several new initiatives designed to attract high-tech industries to Indiana. These include formation of a state e-Commerce Division to promote business-to-business communication and e-business, technology certification funding and distribution of major grants through Indiana's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credits helped attract more than 6,400 new jobs to Indiana in 2000, and business-expansion activity is well on track in 2001 to exceed that figure. Most of the activity in the Greater Indianapolis area's industrial market during the past several years has focused on bulk warehouse space, which is actually a national trend fueled until recently by a strong economy. The region's central location makes it an ideal for distribution-facility sites. Bulk space accounted for over 7.2 million sq. ft. (669,000 sq. m.) of new construction in 2000, according to an early-2001 research report issued by Colliers Turley Martin Tucker on the central Indiana real estate market. "Yet vacancy for bulk product continues to drop faster than overall vacancy due to increased demand," the research reveals. "In spite of growth during 2000 eclipsing 1999 by over 2 million sq. ft. (185,800 sq. m.), bulk warehouse vacancy actually dropped during that period to its current level of 6.7 percent."
      Those promoting Indianapolis as an emerging high-tech haven saw their cause furthered in August, when the BestJobsUSA.com Employment Review designated the city the Digital Heartland. "Indianapolis's designation as the Digital Heartland and its Top 20 ranking affirm that we are moving successfully toward our goal of making Indiana the technology leader of the Midwest by 2005," says Scott Jones, chairman of the Indiana Technology Partnership (ITP). "No other comparable Midwest city made the survey's list, and we have every right to be proud of this accomplishment." ITP is a non-profit association of academic, business and government leaders who are developing a technology-based economic development strategy.
      A federal investigation into foreign steel imports may ultimately bring relief to the one industrial headache Indiana's business expansion community would identify. Otherwise, business and government leaders in the state are more than confident they can emerge from the current economic slowdown unscathed, thanks to major economic development initiatives already under way, and some new ones announced this year.