South-central Indiana update: the region's top business stories.

AUTOMOTIVE AND LIFE sciences are competing for the top-contender title in south-central Indiana's growth, with home storage and paper also making strong showings in the five-county region.

Auto industry cranks up. Weighing in with expansions on the auto-related side are Enkei America,

Enkei, employing 650 who make aluminum wheels, spent $5.5 million to expand its plant and new equipment. Diamet spent $10.6 million on new equipment for its powdered metal plant. And Toyota, which makes forklift trucks, is spending $9.8 million on a new office facility in Columbus, where it employs about 700.

The one sputterer in the industry is Visteon Corp. in Lawrence Country, where 600 jobs are being eliminated. The county's largest employer, with about 1,500 on the payroll in Bedford, announced in April that it would move part of its operations to a different, unnamed location. The company makes transmission castings, windshield wiper modules, windshield solution reservoirs and other auto parts.

Jackson County's top auto industry news comes from Aisin U.S.A. in Seymour. The company announced a $17.7 million expansion in June that will create 50 new jobs by early 2005, reports James Plump, executive director of the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp. Currently employing about 1,800, Aisin makes automotive drive-train components.

Life sciences the new darling. In life sciences Monroe County holds the strong suit in the pharmaceutical industry, with growth at Bloomington's Cook Pharmica LLC, a spin-off of the county's own Cook Group, reports Linda Wllliamson, executive director of the Bloomington Economic Development Corp.

Cook Pharmica is spending $45 million on a new state-of-the-art drug-development facility that will employ 200 initially. It could grow to become a $200 million biotech manufacturing facility and bring 600 new jobs to the area in the next five years. The expansion is occurring in a 450,000-square-foot facility once occupied by Thomson Consumer Electronics in what is now known as the Indiana Enterprise Center. The company will do contract manufacturing for the biotech drug industry.

Jackson County's Schwarz Pharma in Seymour has invested another $8 million in its facility, Plump says. The contract pharmaceutical manufacturer employs 310 and is hiring another 35.

Home storage hot. Also in Bloomington, Cincinnati-based Schulte Corp., which makes home storage and organization products, has purchased a 630,000-square-foot building in the Indiana Enterprise Center. The spring 2005 move will more than double the company's manufacturing space and increase employment from today's 125 by 220 over the next five years.

Paper makes a comeback. The former Kieffer Paper Mills in Brownstown has been purchased by Unicell Paper Mills, wbich is spending $32.5 million to renovate the pulp mill and building a new 78,000-square-foot tissue paper mill.

"We're hopeful some construction will begin yet this year, with production beginning in late 2005 or early 2006," reports Plump at the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.

Not stopping there. The growth is just beginning, if those in economic development get their way.

Two counties are launching new organizations and initiatives to attract employers.

In Lawrence Co., where Visteon's 600-job cut hit hard, a new economic-development group has formed, known as Lawrence County Economic Growth Council, reports Adele Bowden-Purlee, who's currently serving as its director as well as president of the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce. The group is working with Ball State University on a strategic plan.

In Bronw County, where tourism has long carried the day, the new organization is the Brown County Economic Development Commission.

"For quite a while we have been in a strong research mode," says Jennifer Voris, executive director of the Brown County Chamber of Commerce. She's helping launch the group that will operate independently of the chamber. "We're looking for a person to be our economic-development administrator. Our goal is to secure businesses for our area, perhaps micro employers in the life-sciences area, light manufacturing or consulting."