Motor sports player races to expand

A small Indianapolis coatings business that has ties to the motor sports industry will spend nearly $1 million to refurbish an idled Near-Westside plant, hire 50 workers by 2013 and rev up the city's growth in new-job pledges.

KECO Engineered Coatings said it looked at North Carolina before deciding on a 40,000-square-foot factory that is the former home of Industrial Coating Services. That's a recession-wracked one-time partner that shut its doors a year ago, said KECO President Mike Klinge.

KECO's move will rejuvenate the West 16th Street corridor, said city leaders who want to attract more manufacturing, technology and life sciences companies between Indiana Avenue and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"We hope to make a difference" in the corridor's redevelopment, Klinge said. "When we found out these assets and real estate were available, it was something we were looking for and something we needed to do" to expand the company's performance racing division.

The company declined tax breaks or other economic incentives, Klinge said.

The new location comes with 2 undeveloped acres, room to grow if business is as good as projected. Plus, the business founded in 1979 will keep its 30,000-square-foot Southeastside plant.

KECO expects to generate sales of up to $3 million by 2013 thanks to its performance racing division, which will move from the Southeastside by the end of 2011. The new plant, which has been in a startup mode since September, allows for higher-volume work. It can reuse some existing equipment, such as ovens and compressors, and make upgrades.

The timing of KECO's news was not coincidental. This week, it is an exhibitor at the 2010 International Motorsports Industry show at the Indiana Convention Center. Floor space for exhibitors doubled this year from 2009, drawing nearly 20,000 people, according to spokesman Joe Crowley.

Develop Indy, the city's business recruiting arm, said it is promoting KECO and Dallara, an Italian automobile design and engineering company building a $7 million facility in Speedway, as examples of companies that have recently chosen to open or expand their motor sports businesses, said Melissa Todd, vice president of Develop Indy.

KECO will begin hiring in January. The average annual salary for the new jobs will be $40,000.

"Fifty new jobs on the (Near) Westside is a great thing, especially at the wage levels they are offering," Todd said. "While it's not high-tech or life science, it's jobs, and well-paid jobs, and more activity in this area."

Through Wednesday, the city had received 8,360 pledges for new jobs in 2010, a total Mayor Greg Ballard and Develop Indy tout as the highest in the decade and the most since 4,587 were pledged in 2007. The pledged capital investment of $866,149,000 also is the highest of the decade, Develop Indy reports.

Yet Marion County's jobless rate was 9.5 percent in October, higher than counties surrounding Indianapolis. The county's rate was 9.8 percent in January.

written by: Tom Spalding- Indianapolis Star-December 3, 2010