Greater Lafayette Region announces $30 million in state funding

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — On Wednesday, members from the Greater Lafayette Region gathered at the Greater Lafayette Commerce building to announce that it had secured $30 million in state funding toward quality-of-life and economic development projects throughout the six counties.

Last year, leaders from Benton, Carroll, Fountain, Tippecanoe, Warren and White counties coalesced and created the Greater Lafayette Region. They did this in hopes of receiving funding from the Indiana Regional Economic Development Initiative (READI), a pool of $500 million aimed at retaining and attracting talent to Indiana.

“When we as a region embarked on creating our shared regional development plan, we immediately recognized two things,” Scott Walker, CEO of Greater Lafayette Commerce and Chair of the Greater Lafayette Regional Board of Directors said.

“First, we had to work to build partnerships across our jurisdiction lines. Our mayors and commissioners needed to get to know one another, work on this plan, sometimes have debates about the plan and build relationships and trust for this region to compete not only in the READI process but in the upcoming decades.

“Second, we knew the plan that we developed had to take on some of the biggest challenges we face as a region and also capitalize on opportunities in front of us.”

The projects aim to address key aspects of the region, which leaders believe will help retain and attract people to the area. The scope of the projects ranges from addressing housing development in the region, supporting families and veterans, investing in public infrastructure and supporting the new semiconductor workforce that will emerge with the arrival of SkyWater technology.

A Place to Call Home Project

In order to support a growing population, cities need to improve their public infrastructure in order to meet the demand of growth.

The “A place to Call Home” project aims to provide the Greater Lafayette Region with around $8.6 million in funds, to help city afford these improvements to their infrastructure.

Each county will be allocated around $1 million to $1.5 million in funds to support the improvement or creation of water infrastructure, sewage, sidewalks and broadband projects. The goal of this project is to incentive counties to make improvements to their communities with the long-term goal of housing creation.

Tippecanoe County will receive $1 million and each other county will receive $1,644,000 from funds.

Each county and city will be responsible to determine what projects are needed for their specific communities and will be required to meet a $1 to $1 match on the total cost of a project.

“One of the significant challenges we face in our region is a lack of housing. We’re investing $8.6 million in READI funding to address infrastructure needs to prepare areas of our region for development,” said Walker.

A Regional Housing Project

The Greater Lafayette Region will be using $100,000 in READI funds to conduct a regional housing study that will encompass both the region and individual counties. The project is expected to be completed by May 2023, and each county will be provided with an action plan.

'Supporting Our Families'

In hopes of attracting families to move to the Greater Lafayette Region, leaders have allocated $772,000 READI funds to help fund the “Supporting Our Families” projects.

“It’s a challenge facing us for accessibility and affordability of childcare. Our businesses, industries, and anchor institutions all share the common need of additional workers,” Walker said.

Counties and cities will match the funding provided by READI, and the project aims to help the Childcare Resource Network, a regional non-profit, to expand licensed and high-quality childcare across the region.

To ensure that childcare can be provided in the region, the project will help fund new-start-up programs and offer mini-grants for expansion projects to in-home daycare and childcare facilities.

The project will also create a regional hub where people can access a variety of essential services as well as early childhood programs.

The Greater Lafayette Region will employ an individual from the Childcare Resource Network to serve as the project manager to oversee the project for the next four years.

Wabash River Greenways

With the goal of attracting workers to the region, one plan that was identified early on was the idea to enhance the Wabash River Greenways trail.

Region leaders plan to allocate $6.5 million of READI funds to develop the trail along the Wabash River, in Carroll, Fountain, Tippecanoe, White and Warren counties.

Each county will be responsible for matching the fund needed for their specific projects as well as managing the construction of the project.

'Runway for Growth'

When developing ideas to propose for the READI initiative, one project that came to mind was revamping the Purdue University Airport to support passenger flights.

The “Runway for Growth” project will allocate $7 million in funds to help build infrastructure that can support passenger flights.

No official timeline for the projection completion has been announced yet.

INVets Partnership for Veteran Recruitment to Greater Lafayette

In hopes of helping veterans find both workers and positions at businesses across the countries, the region has allocated $183,000 to help bring in a regional business liaison from INVets.

Their liaison will work with businesses to promote vaccines and help connect veterans with employers. A portion of that money will also be used on marketing to try and attract veterans to the region.

Semiconductor Workforce Development Project

One of the biggest pieces of news that emerged last year, was the announcement that SkyWater Technologies would be investing $1.8 billion into West Lafayette to build a new semiconductor manufacturing facility.

The new facility is approximately going to bring around 750 new semiconductor industry jobs to the region.

This opportunity for local talent becomes a major point of consideration when proposing the Semiconductor Workforce Development Project.

The region plans to allocate $5 million in funds to create a talent pipeline for high school students, college students, technicians, and engineers in training. The region will work with Purdue University and Ivy Tech college to create and implement semiconductor workforce programs to help address the future workforce need of the area.

“One of the most exciting opportunities we have in the region and perhaps the state of Indiana is the growth of the semiconductor industry,” Walker said.

The incoming Purdue University President, Dr. Mung Chiang, spoke about the importance of these new projects to the region, but also about Purdue’s ability to help contribute to the over goal of the region.

“Purdue has a special responsibility, not only in talent generation and knowledge creation, but also to help with economic and population growth,” said Chiang.

“Purdue, as you could tell from of two of the seven projects, and congratulation to all projects. They are all important to us. We are particularly honored to be a part of those two projects.

“They are, I think, representing what we need in terms of physical infrastructure and in terms of human infrastructure… This chip shortage as some of you been hearing for a while now. It is the foundation of our country’s economic security and national security and job security.”

When it comes to the long-term benefit of the READI initiative, David Rosenbereg, the executive vice president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, spoke about the potential growth that Indiana can see thanks to this new statewide investment.

“No initiative can trump the impact that we’ve seen with READI. READI was a $500 million investment by the state legislators with the support of Governor Holcomb and the IEC, to invest in regions throughout the state to focus on quality of life and population growth. Knowing that population is the key metric that we need to focus on moving forward to be competitive with our peer states,” Rosenbereg said.

“Our statewide average wages are 30 percent higher than previous years. And we’re outpacing all of our neighboring states in many key metrics like personal income, population growth, and unemployment.”

Beyond the Greater Lafayette region, the IEC has experienced a great response from around the state. Within the first year alone, the IEC has already accepted around 230 projects application from regions across the state. In total, if all of the 230 projects were to be approved, it would account for around $350 million in funds spread across the state if approved by IEC.

For counties across the state of Indiana, the READI initiative will be a key component to revamping cities in hopes of enticing long-term talent and growth.

“This region has been leading the charge from the beginning and the amazing projects we see today are evidence of that.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Greater Lafayette Region announces $30 million in state funding