LEBANON — An advanced manufacturing training facility of Vincennes University is coming to Lebanon next year, the city announced Monday through a variety of ordinances and resolutions passed to get the project started.
Lebanon Mayor Huck Lewis said he has been working on this project for more than two years. He heard through a friend that Vincennes was interested in opening a facility like this in the northern part of the state. Vincennes operates a similar facility in Gibson County, in conjunction with Toyota, and offers similar classes on campus, but this will be the first training facility in the northern half of the state.
“I think this is going to be a gamechanger for Lebanon,” Lewis said. “This is about educating our population and hopefully giving them a better way of life with the trainingthey can get.”
Lewis spent many years in machining in the aerospace industry. He knows what kind of salary people in those kinds of positions make, and he thought it would be great to bring those opportunities to Lebanon. People from all over Boone County, and the surrounding region, could come to Lebanon to receive this training. The training would also strengthen the workforce here, possibly drawing new companies to locate in Lebanon.
“So I thought of it from an economic development standpoint, but also a workforce development standpoint,” Lewis said.
Once he heard about the potential opportunity, he got in touch with Dave Tucker from Vincennes. The two have been hashing out a plan ever since.
The city is planning to construct a 20,000-square-foot building across from the Holiday Inn Express on Indiana 32. There is land available to eventually expand the building to be close to 100,000 square feet, Lewis said. Vincennes will initially occupy around 38 percent of the building, with the remaining space to be rented out to other tenants. But the eventual goal, Lewis said, would be for Vincennes to occupy the entire building. They hope to break ground next month and have the facility up and running in August of 2015.
The city will own the building and lease space to Vincennes for a couple of different reasons, said City Attorney Bob Clutter. Because Vincennes is a state institution, the university would have to go through the state legislature for any large expenditure, like constructing its own building. That could take several years, if it would ever happen at all, Clutter said. The city and Vincennes explored the option of having a private developer construct the building, but Vincennes was not comfortable with that arrangement because the motives of a private developer would be different than the city’s motives, Clutter added. A private developer would be interested in turning a profit.
“We’re not here to make a profit,” Lewis said. “We’re here to bring Vincennes here, to have a better educated workforce, and to be able to hopefully draw other manufacturing companies here to get a higher wage and more qualified workers here. I’m not saying we’ll lose money, but we will break even.”
Financing for the project is similar to how the city financed the newest Lebanon Fire Department station on Lasley Drive. The city’s redevelopment authority (RDA) will own the property and issue bonds for the project with the approval of the city council. The RDA will lease the building to the city’s redevelopment commission (RDC), and the RDC will enter into lease agreements with Vincennes and other potential tenants. Lease payments will then go back to cover the city’s bond payments.
The lease payments will cover the bond payments, Clutter said. But in case of a shortfall, especially in the first year or two, the Lebanon Business Park’s excess TIF funds can be used to make up the difference.
The lease agreements and payments are structured this way so it doesn’t count against the city’s constitutional debt limit, Clutter said. The state constitution limits how much money a municipality can borrow, a percentage of its assessed value. But in this way, the bond does not go toward that debt limit.
“This is a really common practice for cities and counties,” Clutter said. “We did the same thing to build our fire station. We want to maintain flexibility in case another big project or some kind of emergency comes up.”
Clutter said the city is comfortable with this arrangement, particularly because the business park’s TIF fund has a healthy balance. The RDC also passed a declaratory resolution Monday, beginning the process to extend the business park’s TIF district to include this new project. And the RDC passed resolutions approving the lease agreement with the RDA and approving the sub -lease of the properties. The city council also approved the agreement between the RDC and the RDA.
A public hearing was held in reference to the first resolution passed, the inclusion of the property in the TIF district. Lebanon resident Aaron Smith spoke, expressing disappointment that the public had no information about this project prior to the public hearing, limiting what the public could speak on and making the hearing a “farce.”
“One one level, I’m disappointed that once again you are expanding the TIF district,” Smith said. “But on another level, I’m so happy about this project. I think it will be very meaningful and help us move forward from low-paying and low-benefit distribution center jobs. While I’m aggravated at the lack of information available to the public beforehand, I am pleased very much about the nature of the project and hope you move to approve it.”
Tucker from Vincennes also addressed the RDC at the public hearing. He shared about some programs Vincennes plans to put in place immediately upon opening its doors in Lebanon. The first program is one Tucker believes has great potential in the city — a CNC, or computer numerical control, machine program. The second is a 16week machining program for veterans. Veterans have a higher-than-average unemployment rate, Tucker said, and of those who participated in this program on Vincennes’ campus, all but one has found employment.
“We’re going to let the community tell us what we really need to be doing,” Tucker added. “We are really excited to be here.”
The facility will not be like a general education college campus, Lewis said. It will teach and train people to operate machines, but hopefully in the future, programs will expand to include heavy equipment operation, industrial maintenance and robotics, Lewis added. It will initially be geared toward adult learners. But by the time the doors open in 2015, Lewis also hopes to have curriculum established between Vincennes and the Lebanon Community School Corp., so high school students interested in the trades can also get some education and training. They might even be able to walk out of high school with an associate’s degree.
“Not every child is going to go to college, and this is a way for them to get a technical education that could benefit them for the rest of their lives,” Lewis said. “Right now, we’re just scratching the surface.”