State, city offer more than $100M in incentives to Infosys

The state of Indiana and city of Indianapolis have put together an economic development package worth more than $100 million to attract Infosys Ltd.’s airport training campus and the 3,000 high-paying jobs it is expected to create, economic development officials announced Thursday.

India-based Infosys' ultimate project, to be developed in phases over the next several years, will be a $245 million, 141-acre campus with 786,000 square feet of facilities on the site of the old Indianapolis airport terminal at the intersection of Sam Jones Expressway and South High School Road.

The first phase of the project—a $35 million, 125,000-square-foot facility—is expected to be complete by the end of 2020. (Click on image at right for larger view of conceptual rendering.)

The company is expected to create 3,000 jobs in the state by the end of 2023. A source told IBJ the pay scale for the jobs would be $66,000 to $120,000.

The deal marks the largest jobs commitment the Indiana Economic Development Corp. has received since the agency was established in 2005. The previous largest deal was Honda’s pledge to create 2,067 jobs when it opened a $550 million plant in Greensburg in 2006.

The deal is not the largest ever offered to a company. Indiana offered Honda $141.5 million in incentives, which included tax credits and abatements, training assistance, and an upgrade to the Interstate 74 interchange at Greensburg.

IEDC said it will offer Infosys up to $56.5 million in conditional tax credits and up to $1.5 million in training grants based on the company's job-creation plans. The company won't be able to receive the tax credits unless the job commitments are fulfilled, the state said.

IEDC also is offering the company up to $6 million in conditional tax credits from the Hoosier Business Investment program “based on the company's significant capital investment plans.”

Additionally, IEDC said it would provide up to $20 million over 10 years from the Industrial Development Grant Fund to support real estate improvements at and surrounding the campus development.

The city said it would facilitate the rehabilitation and transfer of the existing 2,000-car parking garage to Infosys at the former terminal. Additionally, it said it would contribute real estate and other necessary improvements over the course of the phased project to include $8 million in infrastructure improvements and up to $9.8 million in real estate.

Infosys first announced in May 2017 that it planned to open a tech and innovation hub in Indianapolis that could lead to the hiring of 2,000 high-skill employees by the end of 2021. Thursday’s announcement added 1,000 more jobs to the total. Infosys has since leased 35,000 square feet of space on two floors of OneAmerica Tower, where it has about 150 employees.

IEDC had previously offered Infosys a $31 million incentive package that was based on $15,250 in conditional tax credits for each job the company created and up to $500,000 in training grants.