Duke Energy will be able to proceed with a nearly $2 billion economic development plan after the Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled a regulatory commission’s approval met the requirements of state law.
Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers is set to lead a delegation next week on an economic development trip to Asia, where the team will promote Indiana’s growing battery, electric vehicle and semiconductor industries.
The company has already hired more than 8,000 employees in the Arlington, Virginia, area and will welcome them to Met Park campus, the first phase of development, when it opens this June.
The expansion, which involves additional equipment at the existing facility and a new 32,500-square-foot building, is expected to increase employment by 42 workers.
The $72 million Midland Pointe development is planned on 34 acres at the southeast corner of State Road 32 and Hazel Dell Parkway.
The company plans to retain 500 workers when its relocates from its existing distribution center on Pendleton Pike in Lawrence to the new facility under development in Indianapolis.
Westfield joins Anderson, Beech Grove, Carmel, Fishers, Indianapolis, Lawrence, McCordsville, Noblesville, Speedway and Zionsville in the RDA.
Gabby Bruno, director of economic development for Ford, said there was “no lack of competition for this project.” She said Michigan “competed against numerous states and countries” to secure the investment.
Honda had also considered Greensburg, Indiana, as a possible site for the plant before deciding on Ohio.
The legislation would require the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to notify local officials before purchasing more than 100 acres of land for economic development that is intended to be used for an Innovation Development District.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Friday that General Motors Co. and Korea-based LG Energy Solution failed to come to an agreement on building a fourth plant through their Ultium Cells joint venture.
The company’s more detailed plans for the project reveal the 12 buildings would range in size from a 3,200-square-foot visitors center to a pair of three-story, 330,000-square-foot manufacturing facilities.
A group of elected officials, business leaders and community members in the Lafayette area are drafting a letter to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. seeking details about the state’s plans to draw water from the Wabash River aquifer.
The IEDC says it would like to hire two more people this year, perhaps on the East Coast and in the Southeast, who can also scout for companies that might be persuaded to invest in Indiana.
Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush’s speech mainly focused on the work by the courts that “makes Indiana an attractive state for economic development and how it can protect public safety in Indiana.”
Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott has named Jacob Blasdel executive director of the Indiana Bond Bank, succeeding acting executive director Ron Mangus.
Alyssa Woolard previously served as associate director of economic and redevelopment for the city of Madison, Indiana.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said it hired Jillian Ochs to the new position of West Coast business expansion specialist with the goal of attracting high-tech investment from businesses and entrepreneurs in California.
The new president of Purdue University said Indianapolis serve as one “bookend” for a “63-mile-long hard tech corridor” stretching “all the way to Tippecanoe County.”
The funding requests are part of the governor’s ambitious $3 billion “Next Level Agenda,” which calls on state lawmakers to approve historic investments in education, public health and state employee salaries.
