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September 2008
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.
Louisville International ranked ninth-busiest cargo airport in world
Plant to build electric cars coming to KY
Southern Indiana tech firms merge; plan 100-person call center
$1.5 million grant will aid academies
$8 million office building planned for Norton Commons
Changing the landscape: Local initiative is pushing toward education-attainment goals
Kentucky seniors post gains on ACT
Louisville, Cordish sign development deal
Ford cancels 230 layoffs at Kentucky Truck Plant
Louisville International ranked ninth-busiest cargo airport in world
 Louisville International Airport has been ranked the ninth-busiest cargo airport in the world, and third-busiest in North America, by Airports Council International.
ACI is a nonprofit trade association that represents airports around the world.
Louisville handled 2.1 million metric tons of cargo in 2007, up 4.8 percent over 2006. Read more.
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Plant to build electric cars coming to KY
 ZAP, a California electric car maker, will partner with Shepherdsville's Integrity Manufacturing to make up to 100,000 battery-powered vehicles a year at the facility.
The electric-car maker, to be located in Simpson County, will eventually bring as many as 4,000 jobs to Kentucky.
ZAP's vehicles include tiny trucks like its $12,500 Xebra model and are often used as maintenance vehicles, or for travel within large business campuses. Read more.
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Southern Indiana tech firms merge; plan 100-person call center
Better Quality IT, a New Albany-based company that sells, installs and maintains computer services, has merged with Columbus, Ind.-based telephony and voice integration company Central Communication.
The company, operating under the name Cornerstone Technologies, has 25 employees and plans to begin hiring as early as October for a 100-person call center.
The call center will support a rapidly growing operation that also provides document scanning and management, voice over Internet protocol telephone systems and preventive maintenance for large computer networks. Read more.
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$1.5 million grant will aid academies
Two Jefferson County high schools whose freshman academies have been praised for making sure new students don't fall through the cracks will target older grades with the help of a $1.5 million grant.
The three-year grant, part of the U.S. Department of Education's Smaller Learning Communities initiative, will help Doss and Iroquois high schools create smaller, less impersonal "learning communities" -- not only for freshmen, but also for sophomores, juniors and seniors.
Students in grades 10 through 12 will choose from one of several career clusters that supplement existing technical vocational-education programs and provide college preparatory work, as well as offer dual credit courses and allow students to take career-focused electives. Based on their choice of study, students will remain together throughout high school, with all their subject areas integrated into their career interests. Read more.
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$8 million office building planned for Norton Commons
 An $8 million, three-story medical office building is one of the newest structures planned for Norton Commons, a mixed-used development located off Chamberlain Lane east of the Gene Snyder Freeway.
The building, named Norton Centre, will offer 37,611 square feet of Class A office space that is expected to be available by fall of 2009. Read more.
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Changing the landscape: Local initiative is pushing toward education-attainment goals
Two years ago, university leaders, economic development groups and elected officials set out on an aggressive initiative to improve the educational attainments of area workers.
The initiative, called Graduate Greater Louisville, was designed to find answers to a decades-old problem and move steadily toward a goal of area colleges and universities awarding 10,000 additional baccalaureate degrees by 2010.
Those degrees, leaders said, would have a spin-off effect that would propel the community's economic-development agenda.
Although leaders of the initiative say it's hard to gauge success at this point, they have been busy collaborating on solutions, holding community events and forums and trying to motivate people who live in the area to continue their education. Read more.
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Kentucky seniors post gains on ACT
Kentucky high-school seniors posted slight gains on ACT college-admission tests in 2008.
Statewide, 31,728 public and private-school students of the class of 2008 took the ACT, earning a composite score of 20.9 out of a possible 36. That is up from 20.7 the previous year.
Although gains were modest, nearly 800 more students took the test this year than last year, and the scores improved in each subject area. Read more.
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Louisville, Cordish sign development deal
 The Baltimore developer of 4th Street Live will invest at least $200 million in new downtown development under an agreement with Louisville government that calls for a city investment of about $25 million -- and the potential for a new "entertainment fee."
As part of the deal signed by Mayor Jerry Abramson, the city agrees that The Cordish Co. can later ask the Metro Council to help offset costs by imposing a 1 percent entertainment fee on all food, alcohol and retail goods sold at 4th Street Live, as well as its planned Center City development and The Gardens, which Cordish will renovate and operate.
The new Center City development, essentially a $200 million to $35 million expansion of Cordish's 4th Street Live entertainment hub, is expected to have at least 100,000 square feet of retail, office, entertainment and residential space. Read more.
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Ford cancels 230 layoffs at Kentucky Truck Plant
 Ford Motor Co. has reversed plans to cut 230 line workers in the body and paint departments at the Kentucky Truck Plant.
Rather, Ford is keeping all three shifts of body and paint workers employed as it prepares to move production of the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition large sport utility vehicles from Michigan to the Chamberlain Lane plant later this year. Read more.
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