Kokomo, Marion team up to draw auto jobs

Two central Indiana cities with deep roots in the auto industry have launched a new cooperative agreement aimed at attracting more automotive manufacturers and suppliers to the area.

The mayors of Marion and Kokomo say their Midwest Automotive Loop partnership is meant to be collaborative in trying to boost investment and job creation.

"We want to create the environment that if you're in the auto industry, this is the place to be," Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold said during Tuesday's announcement.

General Motors, Chrysler, Delphi Electronics and Safety and Dana Holdings Corp. all have facilities in one or both of the cities in neighboring counties north of Indianapolis.

"Their presence results in dozens of supply-chain manufacturers and service providers," Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight said.

Local officials are hoping to capitalize on that manufacturing base along with assets such as access to Interstate 69 and the new U.S. 31 corridor, the Chronicle-Tribune reported.

Both communities have suffered large job losses over the years with the downturn of the U.S. automotive industry. They've both bounced back somewhat from the national recession, but still have unemployment rates around 9 percent.

"We were kind of the poster children for cities that might go down because of the automotive industry and now we're two cities that are really on the rise and not just because of the automotive industry but because we're working hard and trying to develop that regional partnership," Seybold said.

Mitch Roob, Indiana's secretary of commerce, said the partnership would appeal to companies seeking places where resources are clustered.

"It shows a level of collaboration and coordination, which businesses like to see," Roob said. "They don't see borders between countries, let alone communities."

Seybold said he and Goodnight have traveled across the country and abroad on trips relating to the automotive industry. He said they came up with the idea when they were part of an Indiana delegation to China and saw a large map showing the connections between Chinese automotive plants and suppliers in an area.

"From that part, we really started hatching a plan of creating an automotive loop," Seybold said. "Out of that came this whole idea of creating a regional center, if you will, of suppliers, assembly people and all those types of groups to be here."