Visiting Terre Haute on Friday, Gov. Eric Holcomb said Indiana continues to invest in efforts to attract new business.
"Economic development has turned out to be workforce development as well, as they go hand in glove," Holcomb said in an appearance at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
"In Indiana, we continue to break records. We've got more people working in the private sector than ever before in our 202 year history as a state -- about 2.7 million Hoosiers," Holcomb said.
Holcomb chaired the Indiana Economic Development Corp. in a meeting on the Rose-Hulman campus.
After the meeting, he spoke about recent trips to Europe, which the governor said helped secure a facility in Vigo County. The Saturn Petcare facility in the Vigo County Industrial Park is the Germany-based company's first production plant in the U.S.
Robert A. Coons, Rose-Hulman president, said the institute's Rose-Hulman Ventures, a product design, rapid prototyping and development firm, has been involved in economic development.
"We have professional engineers on staff and highly talented student interns, we provide technical services and new product development for entrepreneurs, and established companies, to help them achieve their business plan, hopefully to secure external funding" and secure own full-time engineering staff, Coons said.
He referred to Arrhythmotech, a start-up company from the Indiana University School of Medicine.
"The founders had a concept for a monitoring system for when a patient was going to have a heart attack," Coons said. The concept required development of specific electronics and software. Rose-Hulman Ventures developed a prototype system for Arrhythmotech, which in 2016 was awarded a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health grant.
The committee also heard from Dayton Molendorf, chair of the IEDC's business development committee, on four unnamed projects, including a $305 million project for a new food manufacturing facility in Shelby County, to create 460 jobs by 2022. Another project involves the expansion of a company in Marion County for a "manufacturer of machines that produce thrust" marking a $425 million investment and the hiring an additional 357 new employees by 2020.
While improvements have been made, Indiana still has work to do.
"We have a long, long, long way to go. Indiana is near the bottom of the pile in entrepreneurship and innovation," Chris LaMothe, CEO of Elevate Ventures, told an audit and finance committee of the IEDC.
Elevate Ventures, founded in 2010, is funded through the Indiana Economic Development Corp., community foundations, and corporate and individual donors. The company provides coaching and advisory services through its entrepreneur-in-residence program, as well as investments in high potential high-growth Indiana companies.
The state contributes about $30 million to the IDEC, with some of those funds filtered to Elevate Ventures, specifically through the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, created in 1999.
LaMothe said the state does have examples of success with entrepreneurs.
One example is Emerging Threats Pro, a cyber security start-up company in Lafayette. The company was valued at $840,000 when it started. Three years later, in 2015, Proofpoint acquired the company for $40 million, with $6.5 million coming back to the IEDC.
Gov. Holcomb said the state recognizes it needs more investment in start-up firms "and we have a long way to go," adding the state is making a push to attract more venture capital. "Indianapolis is now on the map and we are very attractive place to grow," Holcomb said.
The only vote taken by the IDEC was to approve a two-year contract, with an option for a third year, with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a larger space in the IMS Pagoda. The state will pay $400,000 per year for the extra space. The state last year hosted representatives from 17 countries during the Indianapolis 500 as part of efforts to attract new investment.
About the casino
The governor took one question on the possibility of relocating an Indiana casino license to Terre Haute.
"I applaud the leaders here in the Wabash Valley for coming together and singing from the sheet of music, so to speak," Holcomb said. "We depend, as a state, on the revenue that is generated from our casinos from gaming across the whole state. I have said, while it is not part of my legislative agenda or administrative agenda, it is something that I am willing to take a second look at because, after all, when all of these (casino) licenses were passed out initially, things have changed over time.
"I think it is appropriate to have this discussion in the Legislature," the governor said. Because there are two casino licenses in Gary, "it does make sense to me that one of those could be split off and moved to another place."
But, he added, it will be up to the legislature to determine any changes in gaming.
Senate Bill 552, by Republican Senators Jon Ford (Terre Haute) and Mark Messmer (Jasper), would allow two casinos in Gary to be relocated from current sites on Lake Michigan. One would go to an inland location in Gary and the other to Vigo County.
It is next before the public policy of the Indiana House on Wednesday.