by Carla Knapp
For nearly one year, Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation President Skip Kuker has worked with city and county officials to bring Michigan-based Camshaft Machine Co. to Logansport.
Kuker said he has recently been in contact with Camshaft representatives, who said they have not yet made a decision. In the meantime, however, several other prospective opportunities have been moving forward.
During his president’s report at Friday’s LEDF board meeting, Kuker offered updates on 11 other projects that his office is currently working on, including two that are new this month.
Representatives from Project Candy and Project Eats have visited Logansport in the last few weeks, Kuker said. Project Eats has made two separate trips to Logansport and Kuker said he thought, of the two, it was a little farther along than Project Candy.
“... They seem a lot more committed to Logansport,” he said of Project Eats. “The other project is looking at other communities but they’re looking at us, too, so we’re putting our best foot forward.”
Representatives with another project that Kuker said he previously thought might go elsewhere may have renewed interest. Kuker said he has recently spoken with clients with Project Lonnie, who he said are continuing to look at Cass County for their investment.
Kuker also said that Project Ceiling was reviewing building plans and Project Clean has recently been looking at engineering firms.
The progress on other projects, however, has slowed. Project Olive, a proposed biodiesel plant, is looking for additional funding and Project Moo, large dairy proposed near Royal Center, is hoping to break ground soon, but needs to purchase another property before moving forward.
Though Kuker said he is working to move all the projects forward, sometimes there are intangibles that might lead businesses elsewhere.
“There’s 11 (projects) on there. We could get one, we could get 11, we could get none,” Kuker said. “But looking at that, we should be proud of the fact that we’ve got 11. It means we’re getting people looking at our community. We’re going to try to close all of them, but there are other forces. ... It’s business. Sometimes another community might look better than us and sometimes we look better than them.”
Carla Knapp can be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or via e-mail at carla.knapp@pharostribune.com
