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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowSweetwater Sound Inc. says it will invest $8.8 million in expanding its Fort Wayne headquarters and creating up to 285 new jobs by the end of 2018.
The online musical instrument and audio gear retailer said Thursday that construction is scheduled to begin this fall on a 16,000-square-foot building for Sweetwater's marketing and merchandising departments. The company currently has a 320,000-square-foot campus along U.S. 30 west of Fort Wayne following three expansions completed in June 2014.
The company expects to have 1,00 full-time employees when it finishes the latest expansion.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Sweetwater up to $2 million in conditional tax credits and up to $50,000 in training grants based on the job- creation plans. The company won't be able to claim the incentives unless it meets hiring goals.
The city of Fort Wayne will consider additional incentives.
Sweetwater was founded in 1979 as a professional four-track recording studio and has grown into the third largest music instrument audio dealer in the nation.
Founder and president Chuck Surack says sales rose 28 percent in 2014 over the previous year, and he expects similar results for 2015.
This is the company’s second major expansion in recent years. In 2012, Sweetwater announced plans to invest $23.5 million to expand its headquarters by 110,000-square-feet and create more than 300 jobs.
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