Council OKs abatement for Heartland

Heartland Automotive will make a $4.6 million investment in the Greencastle community with new equipment that is expected to create 32 new jobs for the auto parts manufacturer that has been granted tax abatement on the project.

The Greencastle City Council Thursday night unanimously passed Resolution 2018-16, reaffirming Resolution 2018-15 passed in September. That resolution declared the property at 300 S. Warren Drive that Heartland has called home since 1987 an economic revitalization area, making the site eligible for tax abatement.

During a public hearing at City Hall Thursday night, Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center Director Kristin Clary told the Council that Heartland currently employs 423 workers and that the 32 new positions would add $755,000 in new payroll. That computes to an average wage of $23,594.

Councilman Gary Lemon, meanwhile, used total payroll figures on the 423 Heartland associates to determine current employee incomes.

Doing the computation on his cell phone, Lemon said, “if my math is right, that’s an average of $34,800.”

The latest venture was awarded 10-year abatement on new equipment valued at $4,576,337. That comes on the heels of a $5.9 million investment in new equipment in September 2017 when Heartland was celebrating its 30th anniversary as part of the Greencastle industrial landscape.

The latest equipment additions will include a variety of machinery for making door assemblies to supply to the Subaru assembly plant. The new equipment is listed as a door-folding machine, vacuum foaming machine, door-cut machine and headliner-folding machine.

Heartland is not expanding its East Side facility in the project, Clary has stressed. It will only modify the floorplan to accommodate the new equipment at the plant.

The project carries an expected completion date of April 26 with new equipment installation and any building remodeling due to begin Dec. 3.

With demand for Subaru vehicles increasing and production ramping up at the Lafayette plant over the past two years, more equipment and more jobs have been making their way to Heartland. Besides the latest venture and the aforementioned 2017 expansion, Heartland also added $8 million in new equipment and an additional 48 jobs in 2016.

“All Subaru’s growth continues to help our suppliers as well,” Clary said Thursday.

Meanwhile, with the unemployment rate consistently less than four percent in Putnam County, Council President Adam Cohen alluded to help-wanted signs displayed throughout the community and wondered aloud, “Are our employers struggling?”

“Struggling is a strong word,” Clary responded, noting that some elements of the business community, especially convenience stores and fast-food restaurants, “are constantly looking” for more help.

That employee availability concern was also noted during September discussion of the Heartland project in reference to other companies finding it necessary to bus in workers from Indianapolis to fill manpower requirements.

During its 30 years in Putnam County, Heartland Automotive, which serves as the 300,000-square-foot American headquarters for Shigeru Industries of Ota City, Japan, has made a habit of expanding its local operations. Heartland’s investment in equipment alone during that time has well exceeded $50 million.