By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MOUNT ORAB - Almost a year after this village missed an economic home run, it now thinks it's ready to become a prolific singles hitter.

HawkLine co-owner Michael Daly, right, gives a tour of the new HawkLine company in what used to be the Trinity Industries rail car plant in Mount Orab. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

A year ago, this Brown County community of 2,300 less than an hour east of Cincinnati was still in the running to land Hyundai Motor Corp.'s $1 billion auto plant expected to employ up to 2,000.

After heavy-duty wooing for months by development officials in four states including Ohio and Kentucky, the up-and-coming South Korean auto company opted in April to locate its first American plant near Montgomery, Ala.

But Mount Orab officials don't view the loss of the Hyundai project as a defeat. They say the afterglow from the highly publicized Hyundai search and the successful completion of several years of effort to acquire the former Trinity Industries rail car plant for development is starting to pay off.

Last month, the village secured its first new manufacturing jobs in five years.

HawkLine LLC, a new company formed by two local entrepreneurs to produce farm implements, launched operations in about half the old Trinity site, now called Powhattan Place.

The new company, which is simultaneously refurbishing part of the Trinity plant while turning out product prototypes, employs about 30, but expects to employ at least 65 in three years under terms of tax incentives granted by the state.

BROWN COUNTY

Population: 42,285 Unemployment rate: 6.4 percent in November (seasonally unadjusted). The comparable rates for the state and nation were 5.2 and 5.7 percent, respectively. Median household income: $38,303. The statewide median was $40.956. Poverty rate: 11.6 percent. The statewide rate was 10.6 percent. Sources of data: 2000 Census, Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services

Michael Daly, insurance broker and financial planning consultant who formed HawkLine with David Kiihnl, former owner of LothMbi, a Cincinnati office furniture distributor, says: "We're projecting first year sales of $4.5 million and hope to beat that. Selling the product isn't the problem.''

Mr. Daly, who owns the Estate Planning Institute in nearby Hamersville, has HawkLine on a fast track, literally. The company is pouring new concrete floors in the plant while building prototypes of the rotary cutters, utility trailers and other farm implements that it aims to sell to the small-farm and landscaper market.

The company, which plans to market through independent farm implement dealers, hopes to be in production this month to meet the seasonal demand in the spring.

To finance HawkLine's startup, the project got a $250,000 loan from the Ohio Valley Regional Economic Development Authority and the first $300,000 grant from the Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation.

The foundation was created by the state to disburse tobacco settlement money to help communities in Southern Ohio move away from tobacco production.

HawkLine is creating a buzz around Mount Orab.

"You walk into a restaurant here and before they ask your name or what you do, they want to know if you're hiring,'' said Brian Brooks, vice president of operations for HawkLine.

Local officials hope new employers in the old Trinity site can someday support as many jobs as the 500 to 600 that once worked there.

"I'd rather have 10 companies employing 200 than one employing 2,000,'' Mount Orab Mayor Bruce Lunsford said.

Unlike the high-profile Hyundai project, which was driven by state development officials, Mount Orab's development efforts are now being pushed by local officials.

Acquiring the 47 acres that comprise the old Trinity site, once the village's largest employer, took more than four years of off-and-on negotiations.

"We were too stubborn to quit,'' said Ben Houser, village solicitor and president of the newly-created Mount Orab Port Authority.

Trinity agreed to turn over the plant to the village for $500,000, financed over seven years at no interest.

"It was a very good deal,'' Mr. Houser said.

The village created the port authority to serve as the engine for economic development.

The authority gives the village the ability to negotiate deals with prospective new employers and arrange financing like any other private company, Mr. Houser said.

With the Trinity property as an asset, the authority has a revenue-generating capability.

"Unless your port authority is funded, it's truly a paper tiger,'' Mr. Houser said. "If we create jobs for the community, and make enough to reinvest in other economic development projects for the community, that's what we're supposed to do.''

Mike Miller, Brown County economic development director, says the media attention from the Hyundai site search, which included a personal visit by Hyundai executives accompanied by Gov. Bob Taft, is continuing to pay dividends.

"I think it has given us a considerable amount of visibility because we've pretty much been showing the Powhattan Place site non-stop,'' Mr. Miller said. "In the last three months or so, we've probably had 15 or more people come and look at the area.''

Mr. Houser says the port authority is talking with another manufacturer which is interested in building a new plant that could employ 130 in the village.

Mount Orab is no stranger to high-profile economic development prom acts.

In the past couple of decades, the community has been a regular finalist for big manufacturing plants, Mr. Houser said.

"We've been the Ohio site for maybe four or five billion-dollar plants,'' he said.

It was among the Ohio sites considered by General Motors Corp. for its Saturn plant, which went to Spring Hill, Tenn.

It was also a finalist for the Toyota Motor Manufacturing truck plant that was built in Princeton, Ind.

And it was considered for a large steel plant that eventually went to Indiana.

Mount Orab didn't lose those projects through any fault of its own, Mr. Houser said. "They simply didn't choose Ohio.''

Local officials say Brown County has a lot going for it.

There's an abundance of flat, ready-to-develop land, which requires little site preparation.

The four-lane Ohio 32 - the Appalachian Highway - passes just north of the village. A rail line bisects the village, and it has sewer and water capacity.

There's also plenty of available labor. Not only from Brown County, whose November jobless rate of 6.4 percent is higher than the state and national averages, but also from neighboring Highland, Adams and eastern Clermont counties.

Mr. Miller, Brown County's economic developer, says a recent job fair for the new veterans' home opening this summer in Georgetown drew 2,400 applicants for 200 jobs.

"About 60 percent of our work force drives to Clermont and Hamilton counties to work,'' Mr. Miller said.

The county wants to attract more manufacturing jobs to keep those workers and the dollars they spend at home, he said.

Actually, Brown County has been booming with residential and commercial development.

Brown County's population grew 21 percent to more than 42,200 between 1990 and 2000. By contrast, larger Butler County's population grew 14 percent.

Brown County's population growth last year was 1.4 percent, third in Southwest Ohio behind Warren County's 6.7 percent and Clermont County's 2.1.

The biggest problem facing Brown County, Mr. Miller said, is the perception that it's too remote from Cincinnati or that its workers lack skills, Mr. Miller said.

But he says the 30-to-40 minute commute to Cincinnati and Clermont County from Brown County is no longer than that faced from Butler and Warren counties or Northern Kentucky into Cincinnati.

And as far as skills, he said: "If our people are skilled enough to work in Hamilton County, they're skilled enough to do the same jobs here.''

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com