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We think Elkhart County is a good place to
work and live. We see many companies and their workers thrive
here. There are some good reasons why this should be.
Logistics:
(go to Real-Estate -
Logistics)
 Center
of the population and highway advantages:
Indiana and Elkhart County are national leaders in logistics.
Indiana is in the median center of U.S. population with the distribution
advantage that 70% of the U.S. population is within a days drive of the
state. Elkhart County has 4 entrances to the Indiana Toll Road
(Interstate 80-90). In fact, Indiana as a whole has more
pass-through Interstates than any other state in the nation. It
also ranks 2nd in pass-through truck tonnage, 8th in trucking employment
and 10th in number of trucking companies. In the latest "Cost of Doing
Business" rankings by CNBC, Indiana ranked 4th in transportation, which
helped it attain a 6th overall for "lowest cost of doing business".
 Rail
advantages:
Indiana ranks only 38th in geographical size, but
ranks 4th in number of railroads and rail carloads and Class I
railroads, 9th in most rail miles and 10th for the most rail tons of
freight originating in the state. Indiana, if fact, ranks 1st in
rail tons of primary metals, 2nd in petroleum products, 6th in rwaste
and scrap material, 7th in rail tons of food products and 8th in
transportation equipment and coal. Elkhart County has 4 railroads,
itself; and the Elkhart Rail Switching Yard is the 2nd largest in the
nation.
 Water-borne
shipping advantages:
Elkhart is only 68 miles from Burns
Harbor Port, and it is via Interstate 80-90 all the way. Burns Harbor is
the largest port on the Great Lakes, with capability of direct shipment
to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, and has rail service from all
Class I Railroads. Via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Inland
Waterway system shipping can go directly to Michigan, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa,
Wisconsin, Illinois and other parts of Indiana. Indiana, as a
whole, ranks 7th in the nation in water-borne shipping, and served also
by two other ports in the southern part of the state.
 Air
advantages:
Indiana is one of only 8 states that have multiple
airports in the top 50 for air cargo; Indianapolis is 6th (ahead of both
JFK and O'Hare) and Fort Wayne at 32. We also rank 6th in the
number of regional airports, two of which are close by: Elkhart and
South Bend.
Low Taxes:
(go to
Programs/Resources - Tax Abatement)
Indiana ranks high in low taxes, 1st among mid-western states for favorable corporate taxes,
4th among states for low property tax index and 9th for low individual income tax index. Indiana ranks in the top ten states for favorable state business tax climate according to latest CNBC "Cost of Doing Business" rankings.
This ranking takes into account corporate, business, individual income,
unemployment insurance and property taxes.
 Low
Cost of Doing Business:
(go to Real-Estate - State and
Local Incentives)
Everyone seems to agree, Indiana is good
place for business. Forbes ranks it number 6 in the country for
business costs, and in their "Directorship's Boardroom Guide to the Best
Places for Business" the rank it 8th overall and 2nd for Litigation.
CNB ranks Indiana even higher, 6th overall, 3rd for "Business
Friendliness" and 4th for transportation. Their overall ranking
combines rankings for Cost of Business, Workforce, Economy, Education,
Quality of Life, Technology & Innovation, Transportation, Cost of
Living, Business Friendliness and Access to Capital.
The Indiana
Economic Development Corporation did their own analysis of business
costs among groups of states. The study combined total state
business taxes, sum of corporate state income tax, worker's compensation
and unemployment insurance (2010) and was based on a taxable income of
$1M and employment of 100. They used the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Bureau of Economic
Analysis as the sources for the study. It found that Indiana
was1st among Mid-western states, and even finished 2nd among Eastern,
Southern and Western states.
Chief Executive magazine does a
ranking for the Best and Worst States for Business each year.
Indiana has ranked in the top 14 states for each of the last 5 years
(2005 - 2009), and is ranked 6th in nation and 1st in the Midwest this
year.
Indiana also as the 13th lowest average
electricity cost of any state.
 Workforce:
(go to Real-Estate - Labor)
38% of the labor force in Elkhart County is in manufacturing and
Indiana ranks 3rd in the country in Manufacturing GDP for states where
Manufacturing is the number 1 industry. In fact, Indiana is one of
only 6 states to receive a grade of "A" for friendliness to
manufacturing and logistics. Workers are well-trained in these
jobs and their expertise can be easily converted to other industries.
Wages for jobs in Elkhart County compare favorably to those for
other areas Indiana and the Country. In construction jobs, eg. the
average Elkhart County wage is $40,971, less than the highest in Indiana
by over $13,000/year and less than the country's highest average by over
$76,000. The average wage for every category of job in Elkhart
County is lower than the highest in Indiana and lower than the highest
in the Country. Another specific example: manufacturing average
wage in Elkhart County is less than half the highest in Indiana and and
less than 25% of the highest in the country.
Because of the
national recession in manufacturing, Elkhart County had very high
unemployment recently. At one time we had the worst in Indiana, but are
now ranked 55th of the 92 counties. Indiana had the 3rd largest
decrease in unemployment between February 2010 and February 2011 of all
states and ranked 1st in the largest percentage of new jobs created in
the private sector.
If you are a manufacturer, you find
the workforce in Elkhart County and Indiana's low union membership to be
two of the main advantages to moving or expanding here.
 Other
similar companies in Elkhart County:
(go to
Programs/Resources - Industries)
Elkhart County has a
diversification of industry, with manufacturing being 38% of the
workforce. Their are nearly 1,000 companies in Manufacturing in 14
different categories.
The EDC of Elkhart County has a "director of
business retention and expansion" on staff, full-time, to talk to and
facilitate interactions between companies in Elkhart County. As we
like to say, "We make things here."
 Available
buildings and properties:
(go to
Real-Estate - Properties)
Elkhart County currently has over 60
buildings of over 30,000 sf each available (the largest is 425,000 sf).
In addition we have almost 20 properties available, from 13 acres to 173
acres. We also have parcels in 5 industrial parks left. Each
property is listed on this website and also at the IEDC (Indiana
Economic Development Corporation) website. We would be happy to
put you or your site selector in contact with the appropriate realtor or
developer, and would be happy to assist in you selection process in way
you think would be the most useful to your circumstances.
 Pro-active
EDC:
We consider our job at the EDC of Elkhart County to be very simple in
description. Help you, in way you see fit, to select Elkhart
County for your location or expansion, and to be successful after your
move. There's no hiding the fact that Elkhart County was hurt by
the nation's recession, but we didn't sit around and wonder what
happened. We got to work. Conway Data Inc.'s new plant
database said we were the top destination
for new corporate investment in 2009 among metropolitan areas
with populations less than 200,000. Apparently there are
those that agree with us!
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