As Fishers Mayor Fadness looked out on the One Zone Chamber luncheon crowd, he was clearly pleased to have a venue like the Fishers Event Center capable is hosting such an event. The mayor had been working for years to put together a deal to build such a facility that has only been open since November but has already seen 172,000 people attend what the facility has to offer.
Fadness was a bit sentimental in looking back over the ten years of his time as the first and only mayor Fishers has ever had. He went through a long list of accomplishments and laid out numbers. Of all the data he presented, he was clearly proud of comparing Fishers with the 10 most populous cities in Indiana, and Fishers has the lowest property tax rate in that grouping.
Corey Lewis, Chief Executive Officer and President of INCOG, a Fishers based life science operation, joined Fadness on the stage and discussed how the city has grown the life sciences. INCOG’s neighbor along Cumberland Road, near 121st Street, the Italian firm Stevanato, was mentioned as a big development for Fishers.
The mayor began looking forward, and announced Target is set to build another store in Fishers. The Target along 116th Street & I-69 is normally quite busy, so there will soon be a new Target next to IU Health, in the area of I-69 and exit 210.
A new development on the way in the area of the Event Center is the Crossing, with residential, retail and restaurants on the way.
The city will be adding to the current AgriPark, located on the east end of Fishers, with a second AgriPark planned for the city’s west side. The mayor teased that the city is working with the Indianapolis Zoo on the AgriPark projects, with more to come later.
The mayor once again praised Launch Fishers, a co-working center that started when he was town manager back in 2012. Many startup businesses have hatched in Launch and have grown & prospered as a result. Fadness announced the platform Plug and Play will be partnering with Launch, paving the way for startups to make connections with other parts of the economy, such as clients, corporate reverse pitch events, workshops and mentor sessions.
In his final remarks, Mayor Fadness reflected on the good times the past ten years, the ribbon-cutting ceremonies, the press releases on a new development in Fishers, …but tempered those remarks with memories of COVID, political unrest, cultural wars and tragedies that have happened to those in the Fishers community.
“I stand here today, very clear-eyed about what’s before us, but I do believe, to my core, that, collectively, we can seize any opportunity before us, and we can tackle any challenge that confronts us, as long as we do it collectively, together,” Fadness said in his closing remarks.
