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Owensboro's new Centre for Business ans Research will anchor a multi use development in the city's downtown area.

A former tobacco warehouse near downtown Owensboro is being converted into space that will accommodate a business accelerator program for high-tech companies.

In addition to providing some 30,000 s.f. of office space for young start-up companies, The Centre for Business and Research will also feature between 5,000 and 8,000 s.f. of laboratory space.

Nick Brake, president of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., said the lab space will be used by companies working with Kentucky BioProcessing LLC, an Owensboro company that specializes in work with plant proteins. The company recently won a patent for a veterinary vaccine and its Geneware product is being used in the development of a vaccine for human papillomavirus; as a result of its successes, the company is running out of lab space at its Owensboro facility.

The center will also feature a food lab with an industrial kitchen that will enable companies to develop and test food products. The Owensboro area is home to several food manufacturers and Western Kentucky University offers a food manufacturing degree that is only available at its Owensboro campus. Brake noted that WKU plans to assign doctoral-level research faculty members to the center to work with graduate students.

In addition to Western, six other universities and colleges will be affiliated
with the center, including the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Murray State, Brescia, Kentucky Wesleyan and Owensboro Community and Technical College.

The Centre for Business and Research is expected to be complete in 2010 and will serve as the anchor for a mixed-use development in the downtown area. The “urban village” will include a police training center, a multistory apartment complex, and restaurants and cafes.

Allegiant Air, a Las Vegas-based low-cost air carrier, has entered the Lexington market, offering nonstop jet service to Florida.

The airline will begin service to Orlando Sanford International Airport – located midway between Daytona Beach and Orlando – on Nov. 6; flights from Lexington to St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport will begin Nov. 7.

The Orlando service will operate on Thursdays and Sundays, while flights to St. Petersburg/Clearwater will operate on Mondays and Fridays.

Allegiant will utilize MD-80 jets, which seat 150, on both routes. Regular one-way fares will begin at $89.

Estill County Energy (ECE) has filed an air permit application with the Kentucky Environment and Energy Cabinet to construct a 110-megawatt power facility in Estill County.

ECE hopes to have approval early in 2009 and to begin construction in the second half of the year.

In addition to making more power available on the energy grid, the plant will help reclaim the waste coal left on the 620-acre site by a previous coal processing facility. 

“This facility is positive from every vantage point,” Dell Jaggers, ECE’s project manager, said. “It’s a win for the Estill County area because it will bring well-compensated jobs. It’s a positive for the environment because we are using the best available technology and reclaiming this brownfield. And it’s a plus for consumers who certainly could use a break on escalating electricity rates.”

The ECE design includes a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) combustion facility because it will burn waste coal most efficiently and completely. The facility also will safeguard the environment through a selective non-catalytic emission reduction system (SNCR), polishing scrubber and baghouse filter system. The site will be prepared for future industrial development through the beneficial reuse of the ash, which will be applied to the property to improve the foundation.

According to ECE, comparable facilities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Utah have demonstrated significant success.

Construction of the new facility will create 300 jobs; ongoing operations will require at least 50 skilled positions with average salaries of approximately $50,000.

Northern Kentucky University has launched a new Center for Economic Analysis and Development (CEAD) in the NKU Haile/US Bank College of Business.

“As part of our comprehensive economic initiatives plan, the Center for Economic Analysis and Development will play a key role in conducting high-quality, objective economic analysis and business research for the benefit of organizations in our region,” said John Beehler, associate provost for economic initiatives and dean of the Haile/US Bank College of Business.

Janet Harrah has been appointed senior director of the CEAD. Harrah recently came to NKU after 21 years of experience as an applied economist, including 10 years as director of a similar center at Wichita State University.

“A key ingredient to good decision-making is quality information, research and analysis,” Harrah said. “One of the primary roles of the CEAD will be the collection, analysis and dissemination of economic and business information and trends for the region.”

Economic Development Secretary John Hindman submitted his resignation last month, citing a desire to return to private life and have more flexibility in his day-to-day schedule.

Hindman, who assumed the position in June 2007, will continue on for one year with the state as a consultant to concentrate on large projects already underway, such as the expansion of Ford and Kentucky’s efforts to land a spin-off of General Electric. Prior to joining the state government, Hindman was vice president of strategic communications and public affairs for UPS Airlines.
Larry Hayes has been appointed to assume the duties of Acting Secretary for Economic Development in addition to continuing as Secretary of the Governor’s Cabinet. Gov. Steve Beshear said there is no specific timetable for a permanent replacement, pointing out that transitions “offer a good time in which to evaluate where progress has been made and where more is needed.”

Hayes has a long and diverse background in public service, economic development and private business. In public life, he has recently served as deputy mayor for Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson and was secretary of the cabinet and budget director for Gov. Martha Layne Collins.

DESA, manufacturer and marketer of electric lawn and garden tools and heating products, will bring more than 100 new jobs to its Bowling Green headquarters as part of the company’s plan to move its power tools manufacturing and distribution operations from Manchester, Tenn., to Bowling Green.

The consolidation and additional jobs in Bowling Green will provide additional manufacturing capacity to produce the new Remington Power Mower and support the continued growth of the Power Tools Division. More jobs are expected to be added as new products from the power tools line are introduced into the marketplace in the coming years.

Hourly wages for the new jobs will range from $9 to $17.

This is the second wave of good news that DESA has delivered for Bowling Green in recent months. In July, DESA announced that it would be moving its heating operations division from China to Bowling Green, adding some 400 jobs to the existing 300-member work force.

Total Fuel Systems, a Japanese-owned automotive supplier, has announced plans to locate a manufacturing facility in Lebanon, bringing 100 new jobs to Marion County.

The jobs will have an average compensation package of $20 per hour, including wages and benefits.

Total Fuel Systems plans to construct a 140,000-s.f. plant on 20 acres, where it will produce automotive fuel tank systems and related components.

Kentucky governors have a long tradition of traveling to Japan to develop relationships with the business community there, and Gov. Steve Beshear said Total Fuel’s decision to locate in the commonwealth was a direct result of his trip to Japan this past summer.

“I think it's safe to say if we had not visited with them in Japan, we may well have lost this deal,” Beshear said at a press conference. “This deal happened because we were there, and we were able to look them in eye when they brought up issues so we could assure we would address them.”

Total Fuel’s announcement brings the total number of Japanese-owned facilities in the commonwealth to 158, with employment at those companies totaling nearly 40,000.

Norton Healthcare has announced a new loan forgiveness program under which registered nurses who have student loans with Kentucky’s student loan provider can receive $2,500 in student loan forgiveness for each year worked as a full-time nurse at Norton Healthcare.

“The health care industry is facing the most critical nursing shortage in history … and we need to think of creative ways to attract qualified professionals to care for the sick and injured in our area,” said Stephen A. Williams, president and CEO of Norton Healthcare. “We hope the Norton Healthcare Best in Care Loan Forgiveness Plan will help relieve some of the burden nurses face. By doing so, we can help strengthen the quality of health care in our community.”

The Best in Care Program originally was created in 2003 by The Student Loan People, the state’s only public nonprofit student loan provider, to address Kentucky’s critical shortage in nursing. The program provided forgiveness for up to 20 percent of nursing student loans annually for each year of full-time nursing service. The program was funded by The Student Loan People’s federal interest subsidies and fee income, which were nearly eliminated when Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act in 2007. Consequently, nursing school graduates now are unexpectedly required to pay back student loans they thought would be forgiven.

Norton’s plan – which begins Jan. 1, 2009 – applies to both currently employed and newly hired registered nurses who have student loans with The Student Loan People.

There currently are approximately 350 nurses employed at Norton Healthcare with outstanding loans and 3,887 nurses throughout Kentucky who participated in the Best in Care Program when it was administered by The Student Loan People.

Louisville-based Lightyear Network Solutions has signed a definitive merger agreement with Wherify Wireless Inc., a California company that specializes in global positions systems.

The proposed business combination of Wherify and Lightyear creates a public entity that will target the rapidly growing markets for location-based services and network service solutions. 

Lightyear provides voice, data, and video telecommunications services to small- and medium-sized businesses and residential customers. The company partners with major carriers and companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, among others.

Wherify’s proprietary Springboard location-based services platform enables mobile carriers, mobile application providers and mobile device manufacturers to develop a wide variety of location-based services applications for their products.  The platform will provide the combined organization with several additional potential avenues of growth, including markets for enterprise employee mobility service management, mobile social networking, personal safety, mobile community search and mobile shopping.  

Lightyear CEO Sherman Henderson will serve as chairman and CEO of the combined company, which will operate under the Lightyear name and will be headquartered in Louisville.

 “Our strong distribution base and long-term partnerships combined with Wherify’s leading LBS platform and GPS technologies will allow the combined organization to introduce a variety of new products to the marketplace over the coming months and years,” said Henderson.

The University of Louisville’s IMBA – The MBA for Entrepreneurial Thinking program has been ranked as one of the best entrepreneurial graduate schools in the country by Entrepreneur magazine.

The Louisville program ranked No. 21 in the magazine’s annual listing of the top 50 Entrepreneurial Colleges.

To compile the list, Entrepreneur partnered with The Princeton Review, a leading provider to educational services, to solicit data from more than 2,300 undergraduate and graduate schools about their offerings in entrepreneurship. Schools were asked about the types of courses offered (i.e. e-business, social entrepreneurship, etc.), types of academic opportunities required of students (internships, experiential learning, etc.), what percentage of formally enrolled entrepreneurship students in the most recent graduating class had launched a business since graduating, what percentage of those students are still in business, and what percentage of the entrepreneurship faculty had started, bought or run a successful business.


IMBA-The MBA for Entrepreneurial Thinking
University of Louisville College of Business

Number of students enrolled: 56
Faculty who are entrepreneurs: 90%
Recent grads who started a business: 38%
Percentage still in business: 100%
Number of entrepreneurship clubs: 2
Mentorship programs: 3
Web site: www.business.louisville.edu/imba
Source: Entrepreneur

Somerset Oil, one of only two oil refineries in the commonwealth, has been sold to a New York businessman for $2.2 million.

Michael Grunberg, the managing principal member of Grunberg Realty, purchased the refinery at auction after the previous owners encountered financial problems and filed for bankruptcy protection.

Included in the acquisition were 105 acres on which the refinery sits, two office lots, 12 gas stations, 88 gas trucks and other vehicles, and pipeline easement across six counties.

The refinery can process an average of 5,500 barrels of oil per day.
According to local reports, the refinery will be operating within the next four to five months and will eventually employ around 100 people.

Indiana-based Integra Bank Corp. has announced plans to sell its branch locations in Lawrenceburg, Georgetown and Lexington. The sales are part of the company’s decision to “focus on the markets and business lines that have the greatest potential return,” said Integra President and CEO Michael T. Vea.

Integra’s two banking offices in Lawrenceburg are being sold to Town & Country Bank, a Bardstown-based company that dates back to 1907. Town & Country, which had total assets of $359 million as of June 30, operates in full-service banking centers in Nelson, Scott, Woodford and Jessamine counties.

Peoples Exchange Bank of Beattyville, Ky., has agreed to purchase Integra’s two branches in Lexington as well as its Georgetown location. Like Town and Country, Peoples Exchange has a long history of doing business in Kentucky, having been established in 1912. The bank currently has eight full-service banking centers, two loan production offices and four full-service insurance agency locations in Lee, Powell, Montgomery, Clark, Scott and Fayette counties.
As of June 30, Peoples Exchange had total assets of $269 million.
Financial details of the transactions have not been disclosed.

Johnson Controls has announced plans to close its 300,000-s.f. plant in Cadiz as part of a companywide restructuring plan that involves eliminating 5,000 jobs and closing 16 plants nationwide.

The Cadiz plant, which produces seat frames for the automotive industry, is scheduled to close by next summer, eliminating 559 jobs.

The announcement comes as a huge blow for the western Kentucky community: Johnson Controls has had a presence in the county for the past 42 years and is its largest employer.

In a statement released by Johnson Controls, the Milwaukee-based company said the restructuring is in response to trends in the European and North American auto markets, which have been affected by outsourcing operations to lower-cost countries.