State leaders bullish on growth in northeast Indiana
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The chief strategy officer for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. says the outlook for the northeast Indiana region is “exceptionally strong.”
Ann Lathrop joined Indiana Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg for a fireside chat at Tuesday’s Engage Northeast Indiana event in Fort Wayne.
Lathrop said she expects the region to continue to build on the success and investments that have been made over the last decade.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business during the event, Lathrop said she believes northeast Indiana is primed to take advantage of the growing electric vehicle supplier market.
“This area is uniquely situated between the New Carlisle plant with GM and Samsung SDI, as well as Kokomo which Stellantis and Samsung SDI, I think to really attract the great supplier base that is going to be coming with this new industry that we’ve attracted here to the state of Indiana,” Lathrop said.
Lathrop’s comments came less than 24 hours before Stellantis announced plans to invest $3.2 billion to build a second EV batter manufacturing plant in Kokomo as it continues construction on the first plant, which is costing an estimated $2.5 billion. Both plants are expected to create 2,400 jobs.
The first Stellantis plant has already drawn investment from suppliers. Michigan-based Soulbrain MI and South Korea-based Jaewon Industrial have detailed plans to set up shop in Kokomo, and Lathrop believes Fort Wayne and the northeast Indiana region is primed for more.
Additionally, Lathrop said the fiber optic line that runs through Fort Wayne will be a game changer for the region. She said it’s one of the few lines that can process financial transactions as it runs from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to New York.
And that could already be paying off for Fort Wayne. On Tuesday, the city announced a proposal to annex hundreds of acres of rural land southeast of the city that would enable an as-yet-unnamed Fortune 100 company to build a new data center campus.
Both Lathrop and Rosenberg touted in the efforts made with the support of the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI, that have fostered collaboration to boost economic development and quality of place in the region.
“It goes back several years, almost a decade now, when you look at Regional Cities, and then the collaboration around the first READI program and how they’re lining up READI 2.0 [with] that collaboration between governmental institutions, academic institutions, business community, philanthropic community,” Rosenberg said. “I mean, everyone comes to the table [and] works together well. That’s really been the the impetus for a lot of this momentum and success that the region’s had recently.”
Rosenberg cited project such as the Electric Works mixed-use innovation district Fort Wayne, which recently won a community revitalization award from the EPA, as well as a more than $18 million mixed-use redevelopment project at the former Gatke factory site in Warsaw as prime examples of the growth in the region.
“All along that US 30 corridor from from Warsaw to Fort Wayne, there’s development occurring that [is] not short-term thinking but that really boldness, that visionary approach to sell the state, build the vision, and get people in on board.”
Other featured panelists at the Engage event noted the importance of continuing to develop the US 30 corridor to attract more businesses and talent to the region.