When I interviewed Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness on my podcast February 3rd, he said his State of the City address the following week would highlight economic development and be action packed. He wasn’t kidding.
During the February 10th speech, the mayor made two announcements of corporate headquarters coming to the city, and another announcement the following day about 469 jobs on the way. Let’s look at all three.
Stanley Security will be moving its corporate headquarters to a new 3-story building, to be owned by Ambrose Property Group, in the Fishers Point Business Park, near Kincaid and Sunlight Drives. It should be noted this will be located near the soon-to-be-constructed 106th Street I-69 Interchange. The company says it will move 165 full-time employees to the Fishers location, with 155 more positions to be created over the following 8-year period. The Fishers City Council will be considering a 10-year tax abatement and a waiver of local fees as part of the economic development package at the February 15th session. This area will need to be declared an Economic Revitalization Area and, as part of that process, the City Council will be required to conduct a public hearing at the March 21st session. The structure will be located in a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) area.
The Braden Business System announcement by the mayor is a bit different. This is a case where state incentives are being utilized to uproot a business currently located in Indianapolis and move its operations to Fishers. (In the case of Stanley, there is an operation in Indianapolis that will continue.) Braden will move from near 96th and Keystone to downtown Fishers. A new 4-story, 45,000 square foot building will be constructed between the Switch development and the Fishers City Court building (formerly the auto license branch) which is now mostly a parking lot. 70 jobs are involved. Braden will occupy 20,000 square feet in the new building, with the city subleasing the remaining 15,000 square feet. A tax abatement is being requested. The land is currently city owned property. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation is offering $1.4 million in incentives and $100,000 in grants for training, but are conditional on Braden meeting its commitments on the number of jobs to be created. The city is also offering incentives to be considered by the City Council February 15th, including a tax abatement, fee waivers and, of course, the land currently owned by the city. Again, an Economic Revitalization Area must be declared. A public hearing will be held for that, again at the March 21st council session.
Republic Services, the waste disposal firm, is consolidating its operations around the nation and plans to utilize space currently vacant at 10194 Crosspoint Boulevard, once again near the new 106th Street interchange at I-69. Construction is set to start this year. A lot of jobs come with the plan, 469 in all for a new customer service center. Republic is expected to be up and running at the Fishers location by September 1st of this year, and all 469 jobs are to be in place at the Fishers building by 2025. The state is chipping-in with $4.5 million in tax credits, with the condition that Republic hits the employment targets in the plan. Republic says its investment in the Fishers plan will be $13.6 million.
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness has been saying for some time that the city must incease its jobs base to continue growth. Fishers is getting out to a good start on that goal in 2016.
However, the Braden plan may not be a harbinger of things to come. The State of Indiana is offering substantial incentives for a growing business to move from Indianapolis to Fishers. We will see whether the state is inclined to offer incentives in the future for businesses leaving Marion County and relocating in Hamilton County.