Terre Haute forecast 2009.

• Author: Guell, Robert

November 2008

Just when it looked like Terre Haute had turned the corner on a decades-long economic malaise, the fortunes have once again turned against the city. Little more than two years ago, it looked as if Terre Haute would gain traction and begin a welcome rebound. The news in 2005 and 2006 was almost entirely good. Pfizer began construction on a facility to produce the inhaled insulin drug Exubera. Boral Brick and Certainteed began construction on facilities to feed the ravenous appetite for building supplies. Sony-DADC had decided to locate its entire North American Blu-ray production facility at its Terre Haute location, stemming the CD market losses that were being felt as a result of iTunes and the closure of the Columbia House facility. When combined with a string of public works projects and a resurgence of the downtown business district, Terre Haute stood ready to grow at a rate not seen in two generations.

Beginning in October 2007 and extending into all of 2008, the string of good news turned mostly bad. First, Pfizer stopped production of Exubera for lack of sales. Shortly thereafter, the national housing market began to unravel, leaving Boral Brick and Certainteed to begin their Terre Haute operations facing strong headwinds. Though anticipated by many, the biggest blow came in early 2008, as Pfizer announced it was departing Terre Haute entirely. At its peak, Pfizer employed 810 people, and though 165 remain, those jobs will end when the plant closes completely in 2009. Figure 1 shows monthly employment in the Terre Haute metro since 2000.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

One consequence of these economic events is the devastation to the real estate market for homes valued...