State touts record $22B in economic development investment
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Gov. Eric Holcomb on Wednesday announced a record $22.2 billion in investment from businesses to locate or grow their operations in Indiana. The state says 218 companies made capital investment commitments this year with plans to add a total of just over 24,000 Hoosier jobs. “Indiana’s economy is firing on all cylinders,” Holcomb said in a news release.
The governor’s office says 2022 is the sixth consecutive record-breaking year for economic development investment in Indiana. This year’s total figure is more than 260% higher than last year.
The job commitments come with a record average wage of $34.71, which is 27% higher than the state’s average wage.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. says the capital investment and average wage are the highest since the agency was established in 2005.
“These investments and job commitments will transform our high-tech industries and ensure that Hoosiers are at the forefront of the 21st century economy,” said Holcomb. “Our strategic focus on advancing entrepreneurship, innovation and quality of place is igniting our neighborhoods and communities statewide, providing more opportunities for Hoosiers and their families to thrive.”
The governor’s office says the state is continuing with it strategic vision of focusing on next-generation industry, retaining and attracting top talent, and creating quality of place initiatives in communities throughout Indiana.
Among the major investments were global automaker Stellantis and South Korea-based Samsung SDI, which have formed a joint venture to invest $2.5 billion to establish an electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Kokomo and create 1,400 jobs.
In July, Minnesota-based SkyWater Technology (Nasdaq: SKYT) detailed plans to invest $1.8 billion to build a semiconductor research & development and production facility in West Lafayette and add 750 jobs. The project is one of several semiconductor-related investments in Indiana announced this year.
The IEDC also highlighted the state being ranked No. 4 in the U.S. for new clean energy projects with 5,104 megawatts of projects under development.
Among them is the massive, $1.5 billion Mammoth Solar project in northwest Indiana. Officials broke ground last month on the second of three phases of the project. When complete, Mammoth Solar is expected to generate enough clean energy to power 175,000 homes in Indiana and Illinois.
The state also touted its inaugural Global Economic Summit held in May. Nearly 1,000 representatives from 30 international designations descended on downtown Indianapolis to focus on topics such as future energy and green manufacturing, mobility, talent, life sciences, sports and entrepreneurship.
“Our strategic initiatives and focus are attracting first-of-their-kind investments from innovative businesses around the world while enabling growth and innovation in future-looking industries like semiconductor fabrication and design, electric vehicles and batteries, life sciences, agbiosciences and future industry,” Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers said in written remarks. “These efforts will pay dividends for generations to come, creating high-value, high-quality jobs in our communities.”
Gov. Holcomb will talk more about this year’s numbers on this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.