STRICTLY BUSINESS: 4 AREA PROJECTS IN STATE'S `TOP 10'

More than $1 billion investments are included in Missouri's "Top 10" business projects in terms of dollar investment.

More than half that amount is included in four Southeast Missouri projects, which are included in the "Top 10," and a third of that amount is involved in one Cape Girardeau County project, which was announced in April.

Southwest Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City were sites of the state's biggest job creation projects, but Southeast Missouri yielded some of the year's biggest business construction projects.

In recapping Missouri's Top 10 economic development projects, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, noted that the year's largest project in terms of dollar investment -- and one of the largest such projects in more than a decade -- was the announcement of a new plant near Cape Girardeau by Procter and Gamble, at an estimated $350 million.

Four Southeast Missouri projects entered the Top 10 investment list:

-- $350 million P&G expansion.

-- A $100 million, 250-megawatt power generation plant, being constructed jointly by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. near Glennonville in Dunklin County.

-- $56 million Noranda Aluminum expansion at New Madrid.

-- $35 million Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream expansion at Sikeston,

-- Which all totals up to more than $541 million.

The Top 10, in order:

Procter and Gamble; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, $200 million; EMC Electronic Materials, St. Peters, $128 million; Associated Electric-Duke Energy; Noranda Aluminum; Folger Coffee Co., Kansas City, $44.1 million; Defense Mapping Agency, Arnold, $40.3 million; MCI, Earth City, $36 million; American National Can, Joplin, $35 million; Good Humor-Breyers.

Meanwhile, the state's larger metropolitan areas hauled in the larger job creation projects, both in the telecommunications field. MCI, at Earth City, offers 2,000 jobs and Southwestern Bell in St. Louis, is creating 1,500 jobs. Other major job-producing entries include Prime Incorporate, a Springfield trucking company that will create 1,250 jobs; and ADT Security Systems in Kansas city, a new business expected to create 600 jobs.

The remaining "Top 10" for job creation includes: Lockton Insurance Agency, Kansas City, 500; Mayflower Transit, Fenton, 500; ATC Communications, Joplin; Chrysler, Fenton; and World Omni Financial, Earth City, each 400.

The Procter & Gamble job creation was near "Top 10" status, with 350 new jobs expected.

The Top 10 job creation projects represent 8,050 new jobs, of an estimated 14,000 created by the targeted businesses and industries tracked by DED. This primarily consists of manufacturing, telecommunications, warehousing and distribution, financial services and health care industries.

The Top 10 investment projects accounted for $1.01 billion in new private investment of an estimated $1.6 billion spent by the "tracked" businesses and industries.

Following is a capsule look at four of the state's Top 10 economic development projects in Southeast Missouri:

-- Procter & Gamble announced in April it will build a $350 million addition to its Cape Girardeau County plant to enable an increase in production of tissues and towels.

The expansion, which will be among the Top 3 industrial projects in Missouri over the past decade, will result in 350 more jobs. The plant employs more than 1,225 workers.

The addition will be adjacent to the plant and will put about 20 acres under roof, which translates into more than 850,000 square feet. That is more than five times the size of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cape Girardeau. The plant already has more than 30 acres -- 1.3 million square feet.

The company will build two paper machines and associated converter equipment. Each new paper machine will add 65,000 tons of annual capacity. The first machine will start operations in January or February 2000, with the second to start up six to 18 months later.

P&G has received its air quality permit and will soon start construction of the new plant.

-- It was no surprise a $100 million, 250-megawatt power generation plant, is being built in Southeast Missouri. It was a matter of just where the facility would be located.

It's official. The plant, jointly developed by Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. and Duke Energy Corp., has received approval to be located in the Bootheel, near AECI's existing transmission lines west of Glennonville in Dunklin County on the east side of the St. Francis River.

Three 40-acre sites were considered for the plant -- one each in Dunklin, Stoddard and Butler counties.

After a year of consideration, the Dunklin County site was selected.

Preliminary site work is under way by Siemans Power Corp., the U.S. arm of Siemens Power Generation Group, which will oversee construction of the plant under contract with the AECI-Duke Energy partnership.

When completed by mid-1999, the facility will have a significant economic impact on the area through the property tax base. The power plant will be highly automated and will require only a limited number of employees to operate. Employment is estimated at 20 to 22 people.

-- Noranda Aluminum Inc. will spend more than $56 million over the next two years to increase aluminum production at its plant in St. Jude Industrial Park.

The primary products division will modernize the carbon anode production facilities, said Steve Heddle, president of the plant's primary products division. The project will increase Noranda's aluminum production capacity by about 15 percent, or 73 million pounds a year.

The project will involve a conversion to new single-piece technology and provide more amperage to the plant's three potlines, said Heddle.

The plant employs 1,170 people from Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. It produces about 220,000 tons of aluminum a year.

The plant has been in production for more than 25 years. The first pot went on line at the $240 million plant in 1971. A second line was added in the mid-1970s, and a third line was added in 1983 at a cost of $240 million.

Noranda Aluminum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Noranda Inc., of Toronto, Canada, produces aluminum for sale throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

-- Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Co., with annual sales approaching $1 billion, will expand its Sikeston operation with a $35 million plant.

A new plant is being constructed on a 40-acre site in the new Sikeston Business and Technology Park five miles from the current ice cream plant.

The 200,000-square-foot plant will become the flagship of ice cream plants for Unilever Corp., which owns Good Humor-Breyers. The plant is the first commitment for Sikeston's new industrial park, which became available early in 1996 when the city purchased more than 600 acres along Highway 61 north of Sikeston.

The Good Humor-Breyers plant will more than double the size of the company's plant at Sikeston. It will increase from 90,000 square feet and 300 employees to more than 200,000 square feet and 500 employees.

The new Sikeston plant will produce a wide range of ice cream products, including ice cream and frozen novelties, with brands such as Popsicle, Klondike, Good Humor and Breyers. One of the local products is Viennetta, an ice cream dessert that comes in several flavors. Many of the plant's products are on Popsicle sticks. The Sikeston plant in one year used more than 385 million Popsicle sticks.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.