HAMMOND | Successful economic development in Northwest Indiana requires cooperation and collaboration, said a panel of five business professionals at Wednesday’s 11th Annual Business Expo luncheon at Dynasty Banquet Center.
Recovery from the recession of 2007-2008 that severely damaged the area’s economy has resulted in a renaissance and revolution in how working together gets results, they said.
Hosted by the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, the luncheon panel featured Don Babcock, director of economic development for NIPSCO; Heather Ennis, president/CEO of the Northwest Indiana Forum; Karen Lauerman, president/CEO of the Lake County IN Economic Alliance (LCEA); Milton Reed, economic development consultant for the City of East Chicago and Phil Taillon, Hammond’s executive director of planning and development
Jim Dedelow, of WJOB, moderated the discussion, which gave the panelists opportunities to share information about their efforts and why cooperation is important to Northwest Indiana.
"I am pumped about Northwest Indiana," said Babcock. "We are now pushing the canoe in the same direction. I’m proud of what’s going on locally."
He said NIPSCO puts $1.1 million a year into economic development efforts by supporting organizations such as the Northwest Indiana Forum. In addition, the utility company works with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to provide energy incentives for businesses moving into the area or that are expanding here.
"Indiana has a pro-business policy," Babcock said. "It’s important that we have our arms open rather than our arms crossed."
As a regional economic development organization, the Northwest Indiana Forum markets the seven-county region as a whole and also works closely with the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Ennis said.
"We tell the story on a regional level. Economic development generally doesn’t know county boundaries," she said.
If a company is looking at just one municipality, the forum lets the economic development team there shepherd the proposal, Ennis said.
Created in 2014, the LCEA focuses its efforts on bringing businesses to Lake County and on business retention in Northwest Indiana’s largest county and second most populous in the state, Lauerman said.
"Only five out of 20 communities in Lake County have economic development staff," she said, adding that LCEA facilitates projects through all political processes,
Currently there are 26 economic development projects in the pipeline with the potential to create $240 million in investment and 1,000 jobs over the next three years, Lauerman said.
Hoist Liftruck Manufacturing Inc. recently closed on a deal to move its manufacturing from Bedford Park, Ill. to East Chicago, where it will create 500 jobs at an average salary of $55,000 a year.
"They had no room for growth (in Bedford Park)," said Reed, adding that "the onerous conditions" in Illinois’ economy helped bring the company to East Chicago. "It took complicated negotiations."
In addition to bringing jobs to the area, this kind of economic development has a ripple effect, he said. "Workers going to lunch in the area, and the peripheral companies that supply Hoist Liftruck coming in."
Taillon said the City of Hammond’s proactive planning and economic development efforts help on many levels.
They increase the tax base which translates into more available funding, he said. Businesses moving to Hammond or being retained there provide additional opportunities for students in the city’s College Bound scholarship program to return to Hammond for internships and employment, he said.
A skilled workforce, lower costs of doing business in Indiana, infrastructure such as rail and highways and the proximity to Chicago make Hammond and the rest of Northwest Indiana ideal places for economic development, Taillon said.
“We have to work together,” he said.