Northeast Indiana update: the region's top business stories.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: Manufacturing industries opt to set up facilities within the state

Several new industries and expansions in Allen County signal a return to more robust activity in northeast Indiana's manufacturing sector, report Philip Laux, president of the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce and Lincoln Schrock, director of Indiana Northeast Development.

"Engine cranking again." "We're starting to see some capital dollars being turned loose for projects that have been on hold in terms of expansions and new lines," Laux reports. "I think the cupboards are about bare with parts. If you're going to sell something you need the parts, so I think the engine is going to get cranking again."

Vita Nonwovens USA took over an old GE Motors building in Fort Wayne, spending $6 million to launch its fabric manufacturing facility that employs 30. Benco Dental hired 70 to staff its $1.5 million Midwest distribution facility in Fort Wayne. Home Reserve is a furniture manufacturer that built a $1.4 million Fort Wayne facility and will soon employ about 40.

General Dynamics, which employed 40 at startup last year, has added another dozen jobs and 28,000 square feet of space at its military software production site. Fort Wayne-based North American Van Lines is spending $29 million on upgrades.

"They toyed with relocating to Illinois, putting 800 of their 1,500 jobs here at risk," Laux says. "We saved that one."

Performance Food. Kendallville will gain 285 new jobs by 2007 with the opening of Richmond, Va.-based Performance Food Group's 201,000-square-foot distribution center, soon to be under way at U.S. 6 and Rogers Road. Performance Food Group markets some 61,000 products and serves 14 restaurant chains.

Concrete plans. DeKalb County tallied five wins in the last year, reports Kelly Knox, director of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce. The largest is R&D Concrete, a supplier to Menard's, which built a $5.3 million, 60,000-square-foot facility in Waterloo. It will employ 155 by 2005, making decorative concrete block landscaping products.

Existing businesses expand. In Huntington, expansions headline the industrial news, says Bob Brown, president of the Huntington County Chamber of Commerce. There, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, which employs almost 400, is adding 67,000 square feet to its braking-systems plant. United Technologies Electronic Controls, which employs almost 800 and is the county's largest industry, is investing in new equipment at its electronic switching plant, and Homier Distributing, which sells a variety of products...