When Protection One loaded up moving vans in Topeka last month, it did more than haul boxes of notebooks, staplers and other assorted office supplies to the I-70 Business Center in North Lawrence.

The company also arrived with 65 jobs, and plans for more.

“We see ourselves as pioneers in this business center,” said Richard Ginsburg, president and chief executive officer of the monitored security company, as workers put the finishing touches on the new corporate headquarters. “We have room to grow here.”

The arrival of Protection One proved to be the latest in a series of positive developments in 2004 for business-creation officials in Lawrence and Douglas County.

In all, the community welcomed 475 new jobs this year, along with the $26.1 million in investment that came with them, according to a report from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

“These are basic jobs that go with a good or a service that is produced or developed in the county and is sent outside the county,” said Lynn Parman, the chamber’s vice president for economic development. “By doing that, it brings a net gain in new dollars to the community.”

And such gains are picking up speed. A year earlier, the community embraced 313 new jobs, either from new companies coming to town or existing ones adding workers. There were 239 jobs added in 2002.

‘Important’ additions

Such a trend is welcome news at the chamber, in government offices and throughout the business community, as the new jobs and the dollars they generate help boost sectors throughout the local economy — from home sales and construction to restaurant visits, vehicle purchases, accounting needs and seemingly everything else.

Protection One, Astaris and HiPer Technology all added employees this year, helping fuel optimism for an even stronger year of job creation for the Lawrence area in 2005.

“All that’s important,” Parman said.

This year’s increases actually outpaced expectations, as outlined in the chamber’s annual Business Retention Report.

Chamber officials interviewed officials from 72 businesses for the report, which determined that businesses anticipated making $12.6 million in investments to their physical plants during 2004, either through expansions or new equipment.

Among the largest investments: $5 million in new equipment at Astaris, whose phosphates plant at the edge of North Lawrence added 10 employees. HiPer Technology spent $3.85 million to put 40 jobs in the former Honeywell plant in southeast Lawrence, where HiPer makes wheels and other products using high-tech plastic.

Among the smallest: $115,000 by Paladin Woods, a custom woodcrafter of entertainment centers that moved into North Lawrence from Lecompton and employs three people.

In between were nearly two dozen more projects that added to the community’s bottom line, and continued to feed optimism for more growth in the future.

High-tech help

“The word’s out that this is a great place to do business,” said Bret Stouder, president of Team HPC Inc. in Eudora, which is striving to provide computer hardware, software and services to the county’s burgeoning biosciences industry. “It also looks like a place where there’s going to be some money changing hands — for more equipment, more services, the whole gamut of what it’s going to take to make sure these people are in the game.”

Team HPC — the name stands for High Performance Computing — made the chamber’s report by investing $250,000 in startup costs when it opened in March. Today, it has 16 employees on the payroll.

The team isn’t stopping, either. The privately held company already has sold a computer system to Kansas University for biosciences work — total cost: more than $100,000 — and the company is looking to meet growing demand by adding another five software engineers, with salaries ranging from $38,500 to $65,000.

Driving the optimism: millions of dollars of new life-sciences research at KU, plus the potential for even more spin-offs and new companies and technologies flowing throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area.

“This is going to evolve into a multimillion-dollar effort in the area,” Stouder said. “It’s just getting started.”

That’s just what Parman and others involved in the business of attracting and expanding businesses like to hear.

Positive signs

While the community did lose jobs this year — the July 1 closure of E and E Display Group put 105 people out of work — Parman sees positive signs for the year ahead:

• 20 businesses expanded in 2004, up from 11 in 2003.
• Five companies moved into the county this year, up from one a year earlier.
• Inquiries continue to pour into the chamber offices, as businesses look for available buildings, ask about work force availability and identify options for expansion financing.

“We are staying very busy,” Parman said, as the winter holidays arrived. “It’s a great indicator. There are a lot of projects in the pipeline.”