Crawfordsville mayor no longer interested in city erecting shell building

The building project entered discussions approximately two years ago and was designed to be a joint venture between the City of Crawfordsville, Indiana West Advantage and a private developer..

“The objective of the partnership was to facilitate the developer-financed construction of a 50,000 square foot industrial shell building capable of being expanded to 200,000 square feet,” Barton said. “Upon completion, the building would be marketed and sold to a commercial end user in an effort to meet a strong market demand for existing commercial facilities as part of new job creation.”

From the beginning, Barton insisted that the shell building be privately financed and worked to reach an agreement with the project’s partners to ensure limited risk to the city and taxpayers. After they were unable to reach such an agreement that Barton felt met the necessary criteria, he decided the best option would be to shelve the project.

In addition, today’s economy isn’t the same as it was in 2014, so Barton felt continuing with the construction process would be fiscally irresponsible.

“The demand for completed shell buildings in Indiana and nationally has decreased over the last year,” he said. “As a result, I didn’t feel I could adequately assure the community that we would be able to sell the structure to a commercial end user in an acceptable amount of time.”

Kristin Clary of Indiana West Advantage agrees with Barton — now is not the time.

“Our economy has really changed,” she said. “At that time, the unemployment rate wasn’t nearly as low as it is now.”

Clary said Crawfordsville’s unemployment rate is currently at 3.6 percent, which would give the incoming company an “almost non-existent workforce” to work with.

“We need to support the companies that have already chosen Crawfordsville,” Clary said, “and focus on their needs.”

There are currently between 200-300 job openings in local manufacturing companies, Clary said. Those are the openings that should be given priority.