November 2009

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.


Neustar chooses Louisville for 150-job customer-service center
Fastest-growing Louisville area companies recognized
Local bio-tech company scores coup
Ford could build Kuga, Escape here
Frontier bringing Denver service back to Louisville
GE will hire to build washers
Condé Nast readers vote 21c top U.S. hotel
U of L opens $143M medical building


Neustar chooses Louisville for 150-job customer-service center

Neustar Inc., a Sterling, Va.-based company that provides clearinghouse and directory services to the Internet and communications industries, has selected Louisville for a customer-service center that is expected eventually to employ 150 people.

The company plans to lease an 18,000-square-foot facility in the Hurstbourne Green business park for its call center and will ramp up its employment over a three-year period.

Neustar plans to begin operations in the first quarter of 2010. Read more.

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Fastest-growing Louisville area companies recognized

Fifty-three of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the Louisville area received Fast 50 awards from Business First of Louisville.

The No. 1 ranked company is GlowTouch Technologies, a technology firm providing application development, business process outsourcing and IT infrastructure services.

The rest of the top-five 2009 Fast 50 companies are: Blue Entertainment Sports Television, a full-service sports and entertainment management, event and production company; Charah Inc., an ash-management provider for the coal-fired power generation industry; ARC Construction Management, a construction management, design/build and development firm; and C.I.Agent Solutions, which develops and manufactures environmentally friendly products to clean up hydrocarbon spills on land and water for marine, utility, industrial and military/defense customers. Read more.


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Local bio-tech company scores coup

A small Louisville-based biotech company has struck a multi-million dollar deal to sell rights to a potentially groundbreaking drug it is developing to Alcon, the world's largest eye-care company.
Terms of the deal are confidential, but Potentia Pharmaceuticals said it expects to receive hundreds of millions of dollars if the drug for age-related macular degeneration -- the leading cause of blindness -- is approved for widespread use.

The deal is potentially the largest ever signed by a Louisville biotech company -- and the largest coup to date for the city and the University of Louisville's efforts to establish a life-sciences industry. Read more.

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Ford could build Kuga, Escape here
Vehicles soon could be rolling off lines at the Louisville Assembly plant at a pace not seen since the 1990s if Ford Motor Company consolidates production of its popular Escape sport utility vehicle and European crossover Kuga there, as some auto analysts predict.
Ford Motor Co. is expected to build a new version of the Escape at the Louisville Assembly Plant in late 2011, followed by manufacture of the Kuga, a miniature crossover sport utility vehicle built on a chassis used now in the Focus, according to a source familiar with the company.

Production of domestic and European vehicles would be a boon for the local economy, given that Ford had considered the plant for shutdown a few years ago. Read more.


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Frontier bringing Denver service back to Louisville


Frontier Airlines plans to revive daily, non-stop jet service between Louisville International Airport and Denver International Airport starting in April, 2010. The airline plans to operate one daily flight using a 132-seat Airbus plane.

The Denver route will be the 25th nonstop destination offered at Louisville International Airport. Read more.

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GE will hire to build washers

General Electric's Consumer & Industrial division plans to start a second shift and hire as many as 90 people to build more washing machines in Louisville.

The new line, to be added at Appliance Park in November, comes amid increased demand for the Energy Star machines. Read more.

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Condé Nast readers vote 21c top U.S. hotel


Louisville's 21c Museum Hotel has been selected as the top hotel in the United States and the No. 6 hotel in the world in the 2009 Condé Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards.
The awards were based on quality of the hotel's rooms, service, food/dining, location and overall design. Read more.


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U of L opens $143M medical building

The University of Louisville has officially opened the doors of the $143 million Clinical and Translational Research building.
The five-story, 300,000-square-foot building houses offices for various U of L researchers who work on cures for cancer and other diseases, according to a news release.

University officials hope the new building will provide the research space necessary to continue to attract some of the very best researchers in the world to Louisville. Read more.