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December 2007
Welcome to eFYI, your exclusive monthly e-newsletter from Greater Louisville Inc. - The Metro Chamber of Commerce. As one of our valued partners, you can count on eFYI to cover the topics and issues of most interest and benefit to you. Share your comments and ideas with us any time at VFisher@greaterlouisville.com.
$60 million in tax breaks OK'd for Ford truck plant
Philips to buy Genlyte for $2.7 billion
PNC selling Hilliard Lyons to Houchens
Louisville named a great place to live by Resident magazine
Louisville businesses make Forbes' list of best small companies
Every 1 Reads makes progress
Flowers Foods to build commercial bakery in Bardstown
Kentucky's business climate among best in nation
Louisville hotels rooms filling up for 2008 Ryder Cup
Louisville's Partnership for a Green City wins national award
Marine Builders to invest $1.9 million in facility, hire 108 workers
MBA program at IUS is nationally ranked
Louisville named a best place for 'retirement jobs'
Robot brings doctors to patients
R6, Logistics Olympics awards presented
$60 million in tax breaks OK'd for Ford truck plant
State officials have approved $60 million in tax incentives for Ford Motor Co. to invest $200 million in the Kentucky Truck Plant on Chamberlain Lane.
The tax breaks were a key factor in Ford's recent decision to invest in Kentucky Truck.
The incentives require Ford to substantially maintain its current work force of about 4,000 at Kentucky Truck. Read more.
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Philips to buy Genlyte for $2.7 billion
Electronics giant Philips has agreed to buy one of Louisville's largest public companies, The Genlyte Group Inc., for $2.7 billion.
Philips Holding USA Inc., a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics, will make a tender offer for all of Genlyte's issued and outstanding shares. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.
Louisville-based Genlyte, a manufacturer of lighting fixtures and related products for the commercial, industrial and residential markets, employs about 100 people. Read more.
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PNC selling Hilliard Lyons to Houchens
Two Kentucky companies are coming together in an unlikely partnership that will assure that Louisville-based brokerage firm J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons Inc. will stay in Louisville with its local management.
James Allen, CEO of Hilliard Lyons, announced that the company is being sold by Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. to Bowling Green, KY.-based Houchens Industries Inc.
The deal is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2008. Read more.
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Louisville named a great place to live by Resident magazine
Louisville is one of 11 cities featured in the latest issue of Resident, a weekly lifestyle magazine published in New York City, as great places to live.
The magazine cites Louisville's low housing prices, growing downtown and arts and restaurant scenes as major draws. Read more.
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Louisville businesses make Forbes' list of best small companies
Two local companies have made Forbes magazine's list of the "200 Best Small Companies" for 2007.
Casual-dining chain Texas Roadhouse Inc. placed 42nd on the list, and Almost Family Inc., which provides home nursing services, was 77th.
Forbes evaluated candidates, which had to have revenue between $5 million and $750 million and share prices above $5 as of Oct. 1, on return on equity and sales and net income growth over 12-month and five-year periods. Read more.
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Every 1 Reads makes progress
Organizers involved with Jefferson County Public Schools' "Every 1 Reads" program celebrated as school officials announced that they're less than 10 percentage points from being able to say that every student in the district reads at grade level.
State test results for spring 2007 show that 91.5 percent of the district's 97,000 students can read at or above grade level.
That's up from about 81 percent in 2003, when the initiative was created, and 87.1 percent last year. The major goal set for "Every 1 Reads" was to get all students reading at or above grade level by 2008. Read more.
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Flowers Foods to build commercial bakery in Bardstown
Flowers Foods plans to build a $52 million, 200,000-square-foot bakery in Bardstown that will serve markets in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Construction is expected to begin in January, and the bakery is scheduled to open in fall 2008. It will create nearly 150 jobs with an average annual wage of $39,000. Read more.
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Kentucky's business climate among best in nation
Site Selection magazine has ranked Kentucky eighth in the nation in its 2007 Annual Business Climate Rankings.
The annual business climate rankings are determined by performance of the state in new and expanded business facility activity and by a survey of corporate site-seekers across the country, in which they were asked to rank their top 10 states according to the ease of doing business and overall business costs. Read more.
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Louisville hotels rooms filling up for 2008 Ryder Cup
Some visitors to next year's Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club may not have to worry about East End traffic -- they'll simply arrive by helicopter.
That's one possibility being considered as Ryder Cup organizers explore ways to fill ticket holder requests for high-end accommodations.
The number of rooms available in Louisville for September's international tournament already is dwindling, with the downtown Marriott, Seelbach Hilton, Brown, Hyatt Regency and 21C Museum hotels booked.
The company that sells Ryder Cup ticket-and-hotel packages for the PGA of America says demand for next year's championship -- Sept. 16-21 -- is at its highest level since Rochester, N.Y., held the event in 1995. Read more.
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Louisville's Partnership for a Green City wins national award
 Louisville's Partnership for a Green City is one of 10 national recipients of the Sustainable Communities Award from the National Association of Counties.
The awards are presented every two years to communities that have developed effective public-private partnerships that encourage economic growth and environmentally responsible actions.
The Partnership for a Green City is a collaboration between Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, the University of Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools. Read more.
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Marine Builders to invest $1.9 million in facility, hire 108 workers
Marine Builders Inc. will spend $1.9 million to expand its Utica manufacturing facility, where it builds towboats, custom workboats, passenger vessels, voyager yachts and barges.
Plans calls for a 14,000-square-foot addition to the facility, located along the Ohio River in Southern Indiana.
The company also plans to more than triple its work force with 108 new jobs by 2011. Read more.
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MBA program at IUS is nationally ranked
The MBA program at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany has been ranked among the nation's top 30 part-time MBA programs by BusinessWeek magazine.
The IUS program was ranked No. 18 in the nation and No. 3 in the Midwest.
IU Southeast was also rated sixth in the nation for student satisfaction, named a school "Best for Career Switchers," and received A-plus rankings for teaching quality and for curriculum. Read more.
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Louisville named a best place for 'retirement jobs'
"Retirement job" may seem like an oxymoron, but a growing number of people are working later into their lives, and according to MarketWatch, Louisville is one of the best cities for older workers.
MarketWatch, a segment of the Wall Street Journal's online network, has compiled a list of the 25 best places in America for retirement jobs.
Louisville is included in the Central/Midwest regional category, along with Columbus, Ohio; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Indianapolis. Read more.
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Robot brings doctors to patients
 Patients are benefiting from a new partnership between University of Louisville Health Care and Owensboro Medical Health System that allow Louisville specialists in such areas as neurology, cardiology and maternal-fetal medicine to treat patients remotely using a robot.
Although the robot can't do surgery, it lets physicians consult with patients, observe vital signs on monitors and check hearts, blood-pressure readings or sonograms. Specialists control the system from Louisville with laptops and joysticks and get help from doctors or nurses in Owensboro.
Officials say the system is one answer to Kentucky's doctor shortage, which is particularly acute in rural areas.
Called RP-7 and sold by InTouch Technologies of California, the robot system is the first in Kentucky and one of about 130 in use worldwide. Read more.
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R6, Logistics Olympics awards presented
The Greater Louisville Logistics Network recently presented their second annual R6 Awards.
The awards are given for significant contributions to the local logistics infrastructure and the community. The term R6 reflects a term industry professionals use to describe the "6 Rs" of Louisville's logistics infrastructure: river, roadways, railways, runways, routers and real estate.
The winners included the Kentucky Department of Transportation, Louisville & Indiana Railroad, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kentucky Air National Guard, CB Richard Ellis/Louisville, and Best Buy Co./Geek Squad. Read more.
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2007 © Greater Louisville Inc. - The Metro Chamber of Commerce
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