State approves $60M for LEAP District development for Lilly, Meta projects
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State budget officials on Tuesday approved the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s plans to use $60 million to close on land deals and build infrastructure for a Meta data center and Eli Lilly and Co.’s planned medicine foundry at the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Boone County.
The IEDC will use $27 million to purchase about 307 acres and pay for deposits and options for additional land west of Interstate 65 in the district, which the state projects will grow to more than 9,000 acres. Mark Wasky, IEDC’s senior vice president and special counsel to the secretary of commerce, told the bipartisan State Budget Committee that the land is already under contract, meaning the original footprint of LEAP does not grow with the land purchases.
The IEDC will use the remaining $33 million for infrastructure development, including water and wastewater support and roadwork, at sites planned to house the two companies.
Lilly is spending more than $13 billion to construct a campus at the LEAP District, including a recently announced $4.5 billion investment to build a medicine foundry for advanced manufacturing and drug development.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is planning to build a data center on 1,500 acres at the south end of the park. So far, Lebanon officials said, the company has committed to a $800 million investment in what is the first of a potentially six-phase development with a potential investment of up to $4.8 billion.
The IEDC has said it will recoup the state’s investment when the land is later sold to private-sector tenants.
The IEDC expects to return about $186 million in money it spent from the state’s deal closing fund when the agency closes on a land sale later this year. That money will be returned to the General Fund, which serves as essentially the state’s main checking account.
The State Budget Committee, a five-member group that includes Republican and Democratic fiscal leaders and the state budget director, also approved $25 million in bonding authority to help Citizens Energy extend its water system so it can send 25 million gallons of water per day to LEAP and other Boone County developments.
The Indiana Finance Authority will put the money into a debt service reserve fund that will be used to secure bond financing. The budget committee approved $50 million to support bonds and provide debt service coverage in August.
Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, sought to remove the IEDC’s requests from the list of items for approval but his motion failed. He made a similar move at the August budget meeting, which also failed. He abstained from voting on final approval.