Northern Indiana update.

• Author: Kurowski, Jeff
• Position: Economic development

The year 1992 was a time of economic recovery or restructuring in several Northern Indiana counties. A recovery was most noticeable in Elkhart County, where the highly cyclical recreational-vehicle industry is the largest component of the manufacturing sector.

Meanwhile, there was a less pronounced recovery in Kosciusko County last year for a very good reason: It hardly felt the impact of the 1991 recession in the first place.

In South Bend, the largest city in the north-central part of the state, the manufacturing sector continued to restructure. Two large factories announced closings but a California firm announced plans to open a large plant in a much ballyhooed new industrial park.

Important economic developments also occurred in Marshall, Fulton and Lagrange counties in 1992 and early 1993.

Marshall County economic-development officials successfully recruited a corrugated paper manufacturer from Toledo, Ohio, while in Fulton County, two auto and truck industry supplier firms grew, creating about 60 new jobs.

In Lagrange County, located east of Elkhart County, the Amish-oriented Shipshewana tourist area had an excellent year. RV and manufactured-housing firms from Elkhart County also expanded into Lagrange County or revived struggling firms in that county.

Certainly, the 235 former employees of the Toro lawn and garden tractor plant and the 260 former employees of the Allied Products plant (better known in South Bend as Mastic) will face difficult challenges as they look for new jobs or enter retraining programs. But the loss of manufacturing jobs was somewhat offset by the decision by Accuride International Inc. of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., to build a new plant in South Bend's Airport 2010 industrial park.

Accuride, producer of ball-bearing drawer slides for office-furniture manufacturers, will create about 250 jobs when it opens its new plant this summer. "For Accuride, the key was South Bend being in the middle of a strong office market (found in the Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis areas) and because we're near major furniture manufacturers such as Steelcase in Grand Rapids," says Steve Queior, president of the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County.

The Airport 2010 development area is one of two large suburban office parks in South Bend and neighboring Mishawaka. Airport 2010 got a big boost from Accuride's decision to locate there, and Queior believes the mixed-use development area "will really take off in 1994."

Accuride will...