The Northern Indiana Lakes Country Enterprise Center in Angola, a trails project in Adams County and a business incubator and residential project in Huntington were awarded funding Dec. 13 by the Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority.
The funding is provided via the $42 million Regional Cities Initiative grant that northeast Indiana won last year, which the RDA oversees. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. must sign off on the project funding.
Steuben County is in the middle of a $1.9-million project to turn vacant industrial facilities on South Wayne Street into space for offices, workforce training programs, co-working and a business incubator. The enterprise center also is home to the Steuben County Economic Development Corp.
“It was very promising looking,” said Northeast Indiana RDA board member Brad Bishop, who visited the enterprise center prior to the Dec. 13 meeting held at Trine University. “Good stuff is going on there.”
The enterprise center received $323,000 in Regional Cities Initiative funding. The $3.6-million South Adams Trails project to reconstruct two historic Pratt Truss iron railroad bridges over the Wabash River got a $498,000 grant. And, the United Brethren Block project in Huntington, an $8-million partnership between Huntington University and Pathfinder Services to develop innovation and entrepreneurial spaces for people of all abilities along with 35 apartment units, was awarded a $1.6 million grant.
“It’s a game-changing opportunity for us in the city of Huntington,” Mayor Brooks Fetters said.
RDA board members also heard two requests for Regional Cities Initiative funding. Posterity Heights Scholar House would be developed on vacant land in southeast Fort Wayne and designed to help single parents attend college, improve their financial situations and become employed in in-demand careers.
The $12.4 million, 44-unit complex would provide on-site child care, support services, and include features such as a half-megawatt solar array and electric vehicles and charging stations designed to lessen residents’ housing and transportation costs.
Scholar house residents would be enrolled at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne or Indiana Tech, and be encouraged to pursue careers in finance, information technology, health care and advanced manufacturing – fields that are important to the region’s economy.
The Rev. Cedric Walker, one of the backers of Posterity Heights Scholar House, said the idea is to help move two generations out of poverty at the same time: single parents and their children.
“I wanted to do something to help people dig within themselves and become who God intended them to be,” he said.
The Posterity Heights Scholar House project is requesting $2.5 million in Regional Cities Initiative funding, or about 20 percent of the overall project cost.
In LaGrange County, owners of the Michiana Event Center in Howe plan on moving the operation and constructing a more than 200,000-square-foot complex on 24 acres in Shipshewana at a cost of more than $19.2 million.
Michiana Event Center owners announced earlier this year they would seek a new location because they’re running out of space at the former recreational vehicle manufacturing facility in Howe. The plant was turned into an event center in 2010.
The all-new event center in Shipshewana, located along C.R. 200 North (Farver Street) near S.R. 5, would include; a 100,000-square-foot trade-show building; a 55,000-square-foot arena; a 75,600-square-foot storage and staging building; a 7,200-square-foot commercial kitchen; and offices.
Dennis Fry, Michiana Event Center CEO, said construction could start next spring and be completed by September.
Fry said Shipshewana is an attractive location for the event center, because the town attracts more than 2 million visitors each year. The event center’s trade-show building and arena, he added, likely would host more than 100 total events in 2017-2018 that could attract more than 185,000 people.
Since it opened in Howe, the event center has found success hosting home expos, auctions, outdoor shows and the Northern Indiana Woodcrafters Association show, among other events.
Fry said there’s an opportunity to do even more, in particular hosting horse shows.
“We know we can bring in a heck of a lot of people,” he said.
The present facility in Howe has been sold to ATJ Real Estate Holdings, with the event center leasing back the space. LaGrange County Economic Development Corp. President and CEO Ryne Krock said he’s excited at the prospect of the building becoming vacant again, because manufacturers are ready to move into it.
“This really helps us on multiple fronts there,” Krock said of the event center moving to Shipshewana.
Those involved with the event center project are seeking more than $3.8 million in Regional Cities Initiative funding, or about 20 percent of the project’s overall cost.
As they’ve done with other Regional Cities Initiative proposals, Northeast Indiana RDA board members voted to table both funding requests. They could announce a decision at their Jan. 17 meeting.