Why Northwest Indiana?

• Author: Skertic, Mark
• Position: Business and industry in Indiana - Indiana's North Coast: Living & Working in Northwest Indiana

If Indiana's farmland is the state's soul, then Northwest Indiana might be considered the state's muscle.

The area has become the steel capital of the country. The pride, sweat and dollars that pour into those mills and factories operating in East Chicago, Gary, Portage and other cities at the heart of this industrial area have attracted many other businesses like a magnet attracts steel.

The Northwest Indiana Forum Inc. helps bring companies to this corner of the state. "Companies are referred, and we also do recruitment, retention and expansion projects," says Terri Petras, the organization's marketing director. The forum works in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Starke, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski counties. "When a company comes to us and says they want to locate somewhere here, we can bring together the whole package. We can bring in utilities, banks to put together financing, the city to talk about tax abatements. We can draw it all together for them."

What follows is a look at some of those businesses that have chosen to make their home in Northwest Indiana.

NATIONAL TUBE SUPPLY CO.

"From a geographical point of view, this location made sense," says Gordon Hendry, president National Tube Supply Co. of Hammond. "Our customer base is the Midwest, and it made sense to locate in Chicago land."

Ready access to transportation at the Hammond site helped National Tube, a distributor, pick Indiana over Illinois for the location of its operations, Hendry says.

"We envision expanding very rapidly. The transport and trucking companies have made this location advantageous."

JOHN BOWMAN PHOTOGRAPHY

While many of the companies listed here are related to the traditional heavy industry associated with this area, John Bowman Photography in Munster is an example of the service industries drawn to the Indiana side of what is known locally as Chicagoland.

"Cook County wasn't willing to work with us, and we were having to sacrifice square footage in the building to pay the taxes," says John Bowman, owner of the company. In Illinois, the company was classified as a manufacturer, a designation that carried with it a larger tax burden.

When the company looked for a new home, the city of Munster, located in Lake County, was able to put together an attractive deal.

"They approved an abatement plan that lets me get out of some of my front-loaded debt over a few years," Bowman says. "We couldn't have done what we're doing without the town's help."

A half-million dollars has...