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

• Author: Richards, Rick A.
• Position: REGIONAL REPORT NORTHWEST

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF Plasmatronics announcing it would locate in Crown Point goes far beyond the 220 jobs it will create. The announcement symbolizes the significant shift taking place in job creation in northwest Indiana.

Although still considered the heart of the nation's steel industry, northwest Indiana is also finding room for high technology companies such as Plasmatronics.

Linda Decker, CEO of the Center Moriches, N.Y., company, says she is excited about moving her company's manufacturing and research operation from Long Island to Crown Point. "There is a vibrant transportation and logistics businesses in Indiana," she says. "There isn't a company that can't benefit immediately from our business."

Decker's company has created a product called Plasma Drive Ignition, which through the magic of physics and the creation of a proprietary process that ionizes molecules of plasma, is an ignition system that doesn't use a spark to start a motor like convention engines. The advantage, says Decker, is a cleaner burning fuel that provides 51 percent better gas mileage for cars, trucks and motorcycles.

Decker says the choice of locating in Crown Point was actually fairly easy because of the work the company has done with scientists at Argonne Laboratory in Illinois and at Purdue University-Calumet. Locating in Crown Point, she says, put the company close to both places, where it wants to continue its research relationship.

The company will move into a new 9,000-square-foot building that is currently being outfitted for Plasmatronics, says Decker. "And there is a highly trained workforce in place," she says, adding that the company will pay $23 an hour plus benefits.

"With our transportation network in this region, it makes sense for a company like Plasmatronics to be here," says Crown Point Mayor Dan Klein. "Indiana says it's the Crossroads of America and that really holds true here."

Klein admits the region is still viewed by many as being dominated by steel, but with the nearby Purdue Technology Park in Merrillville, that is changing.

In luring Plasmatronics, the state put up $2.1 million in capital investments, offered $1.23 million in tax credits from the Indiana Economic Development Corp., and added $95,000 in grants. Additionally, Crown Point offered Plasmatronics a $500,000 loan, the details of which are still being finalized, says Klein.

The mayor says a year of work has been involved in luring Plasmatronics. And in the three-plus years...