Last 8 years: 15 projects, 1,000 jobs

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Mayor-elect Bill Dory, still wearing his Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center executive director hat and no-nonsense approach, offered up some impressive statistics in summarizing the past eight years of local development.

Pointing to numbers from the eight-year period coinciding with the two terms of outgoing Mayor Sue Murray and retiring City Council members Jinsie Bingham and Phyllis Rokicki, Dory said the timeframe produced 15 significant projects that were shepherded through the City Council by his office.

Those 15 projects include six projects alone for Chiyoda USA, which was granted tax abatement on its most recent expansion that will mean $44.5 million in new investment of real property and equipment and 200 new jobs at the plant located at Capital Drive and Indianapolis Road on the city's East Side.

While creating additional local jobs numbering more than a combined 1,000, the total proposed new investment from those 15 projects, Dory reported, exceeds $200 million.

All that has meant additional local payroll of a little more than $33 million.

During the last eight years the country as a whole went through a significant economic downturn while the City of Greencastle has flourished in comparison.

"As I've talked to my counterparts around the state," Dory said, "I thank my lucky stars every night for what we have accomplished."

Dory, who will assume his new role as mayor of Greencastle on Jan. 1, said economic development "is a team effort."

"It takes a community," he said, deflecting any individual praise, particularly when it was mentioned about his dogged determination in marketing the Phoenix Closures property. That's the time he showed the site while armed with flashlights since the previous owners had the power shut off.

Councilman Mark Hammer, currently in his 20th year on the panel and ready for his first term as a councilman-at-large next year, was impressed by Dory's timely statistical review.

"For a community of 10,000 people to add 1,000 new jobs in eight years -- that's pretty good work," Hammer commented.

Dory's remarks came after the Council unanimously approved Resolution 2015-20, setting the stage for Chiyoda to receive tax abatement on the equipment portion of its latest project. The Council earlier this year had previously approved the real estate portion of the Chiyoda expansion effort for abatement.

Not only will the latest Chiyoda venture -- which is tied to a new model being produced at the Subaru plant in Lafayette -- increase its labor force by 200 but it will also mean an additional $4.4 million in added payroll.

Despite the sliding-scale reduction, Chiyoda will still pay $715,000 in property taxes over the 10-year life of the abatement, while new income taxes generated by the additional positions (running Chiyoda's workforce up to 350) is expected to be $770,000 over the 10 years, Dory said.

Keeping on his development director hat, Dory noted that 120 of the 180 current fulltime positions at Chiyoda are manned by Putnam County residents with 65 percent of the fulltime temporary workers at the plant from within the county.

As far as the hiring timetable goes, Chiyoda USA Vice President Ron Muncie said the company is already ahead of schedule, bringing in 20 new people for training already even though the building is still being constructed and equipment is awaiting shipment from Japan.

The goal is to have everything in place to go live next November in coinciding with the model change at Subaru.

The new Chiyoda building, which broke ground this past summer, is moving along well, Muncie noted, with the walls up and the floors in, allowing work to continue inside even when winter weather arrives in earnest.

Meanwhile, Dory said a simple decision by Chiyoda could have lasting effects on further economic development along Capital Drive.

He said Chiyoda officials opted to bring the new natural gas line in along Capital Drive, helping out the community with future development potential in doing so, when it could have just brought the new gas line over to the new addition by going through its own property.

That decision will also "make gas available if we ever want to do something at Big Walnut Sports Park," Dory added.

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