St. Joseph County officials bullish on economic future, prepping for 2025
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Record-breaking investment numbers, successful talent attraction and retention strategies, and numerous groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings are some of the achievements business and community leaders celebrated at the annual State of the Economy breakfast organized by the South Bend Regional Chamber, on Tuesday.
Historically featuring mayors of different cities within the region, this year’s event featured Indiana Chamber of Commerce CEO Vanessa Green Sinders, AM General CEO Jim Cannon, and Aunalytics Founder Rich Carlton in conversation with Chamber President Jeff Rea.
Highlighting health care, manufacturing and education as areas of immense growth in the region, Alyson Herzig, director of economic development with the chamber, said that the diversity helps the region stay ahead of economic downturns.
While St. Joseph County’s population is only about 273,000 people, the abundance of workers from neighboring counties willing to drive within a 45 minute radius to work in the county brings the population to just above a million people.
“For 50 years, we did not have any population growth. So while 2.2% doesn’t sound like a lot, it is positive, and we are projecting growth within the prime working age of 5,200 individuals over the next 10 years,” Herzig said. “Really important, as we start to talk about these projects that are coming to the community, that we do have the workforce for them.”
With inflation up 19.8%, since 2019, wages rose at the rate of 20.5%, softening the blow. The county’s average hourly wage of $30.56 surpassed Elkhart, Goshen and Evansville, but lagged behind the nation and state average for 2023. Unemployment rates in the region are also a little higher than nationwide and state figures.
“Our unemployment number is up at 4.8%. However, we’re really buoyed, because right now, we have the most individuals in the workforce than we’ve had since 2019,” Herzig said. “When we look at the 10-year job growth, we’re projecting about 4.6%. This does take into account the new projects that are coming to the community and also growth within our community and existing businesses.”
Not only are new companies moving into the region, existing businesses are investing billions to expand their operations in Indiana. Across the state, about 72% of last year’s $28.7 billion investments involved existing businesses expanding operations. The final expansion and retention rate for 2024 have yet to be announced.
Rea speaks on momentum the county is experiencing and how companies can look into expanding their operations within the region.
“We’re kind of bullish on what’s happening in our area. A lot of new projects are getting a lot of attention, but most of the [economic] activity is coming from the expansion and retention piece,” Rea said. “Across the state, $38 billion and I would say almost $18 billion of that is in St. Joe County. So we’ve done well.”
Carlton stressed the importance of local buy-in, recalling how early partnerships with 1st Source Bank, the University of Notre Dame, Thor Industries among others prepared Aunalytics to do the work they do at scale all over the country.
“AM General is one of our largest customers. Working locally made us better. We do Department of Defense-level work, because of what we have to do for AM General, which has allowed us to then go national,” Carlton explained. “So that opportunity to make each other better, to give that local company the shot, and then help them export that service and bring part of the growth back to our region, it’s a great opportunity to continue that flywheel.”
In a surprising upset last year, South Bend-based AM General beat out incumbent JLTV makers Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense and won the $8.66 billion contract to build the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. Known for its Humvee, the company invested $70 million to expand its Mishawaka plant and South Bend warehouse to accommodate the new production line.
After years being an underdog in the tactical vehicle industry, Cannon said the switch in ownership to KPS Capital Partners in 2020 has made all the difference in terms of growth and expansion.
“They’re industrialists, and they want to grow the business. We’re already looking at future pursuits,” Cannon said. “We’re shifting away from low intensity combat operations to high intensity combat operations, where artillery, air defense and those kinds of weapon systems are literally the king of battle.”
Winning the JLTV contract also enabled the company to hire younger workers to learn from older employees who are set to retire in the next three to seven years. The average tenure at AM General is between 20 and 23 years, and Cannon said it would have been a waste to lose all of that knowledge.
“There is a real need in the community for more vocational training for welders. When we had our first hiring class, we were going to fill 60 slots, and we got hundreds of resumes, but many of these people don’t understand shop math or how to read drawings, stuff that they used to teach in high school a long time ago,” he added. “Now high schools seem more geared towards everyone going to college, not going into skilled trades. So that’s an area where we could do a better job.”
Business development highlights
Conceived over 40 years ago, the vision of former county leaders is now materializing through the Indiana Enterprise Center (IEC), located east of the town of New Carlisle and west of the city of South Bend in northwest St. Joseph County. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) $11 billion data center and General Motors’ $3.5 billion plant are both located within this economic hub that was designed to host gigantic operations.
Low cost of doing business, a highly skilled workforce, a density of post-secondary institutions, well-established water, electric, transportation and internet infrastructure in addition to an abundance of plug-in ready sites, has positioned the county to attract the new investments, Rea added.
“They are on building number 10, there will be about 33 different buildings on that [AWS] campus when all is said and done, each of them about the size of a Walmart, about 1,000 employees,” Rea said. “They are a large utility customer, a large taxpayer, a good employer in our community, and in particular, a big economic impact in our area as well.”
With all the investments from attraction, expansion and retention, Rea said 2025 could be the busiest construction season the county had seen in a long time. Partnerships with Ivy Tech and other workforce development organizations are underway to staff the almost 2,700 jobs that both projects will require.
For its Beacon Towers project, Beacon Memorial Hospital is investing $230 million and once completed, the development is expected to create over 300 jobs. Lippert Components committed $39 million to a new after-market fulfillment center, projected to create over 100 jobs. Verbio’s $230 million upgrade to the former South Bend Ethanol Plant is also underway.
Quality of place and quality of life investments in 2024 includes a $50 million renovation at Four Winds Field, the $38 million recently opened Mishawaka Fieldhouse, the $15 million renovation and expansion of the Morris Performing Arts Center, the $11.5 million urban trail connecting Notre Dame to downtown South Bend and the new Indiana Dinosaur Museum opened in July.
Opened in 1987, Coveleski Stadium, now Four Winds Field and home to the South Bend Cubs, was built to serve as a catalyst for growth in the downtown area. It took a while, but more than three decades later, the developmental potential is being actualized.
“The strength of our downtown has probably never been as good as it is right now, and we continue to see some great projects continue to emerge there,” Rea said. “We know we need to drive the wage up, and projects like GM, Amazon, AM General and others are helping us improve wages here in our community.”
Officials are also working to address housing needs with multiple projects in the works.
The highly anticipated $334 Madison Lifestyle District, $180 million Notre Dame Northern Edge development, $31 million Five Corners construction, $44 million Springs at Mishawaka luxury apartments, $25 million Diamond View Apartments, and the $6.3 million Momentum Entrepreneurship Hub, are expected to positively impact the housing stock in the county, while bearing accessibility and affordability in mind.
“We should celebrate the success that Indiana has had, while also not being complacent and always looking at how we can do more and do better,” Sinders said. “Now we have an opportunity to really focus on some of these other issues, like talent attraction, energy, childcare, housing and some of those quality of place issues that are really going to make sure that we can continue moving forward.”
Currently, Sinders said the state is losing over $4 billion yearly due to a lack of affordable, accessible and quality child care according to a study done in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Early Learning Indiana.