The Greater Lafayette region on Wednesday announced plans for the $30 million it will receive from the state as part of the Regional Economic Development Initiative, or READI, grant program.
Spending priorities include a variety of projects, including $5 million for a workforce development project aimed at training local workers to fill semiconductor industry jobs. The project comes in the wake of an announcement by SkyWater Technology to build a $1.8 billion chip manufacturing facility in West Lafayette.
Scott Walker is the president and CEO of Greater Lafayette Commerce. He said the various projects will help knit the six-county region, which includes Benton, Warren, White, Fountain, Tippecanoe, and Carroll counties, together.
“We worked together hard over the past year-and-a-half to lay out what our priorities are, selected the projects that meet those priorities, and then all agreed through unanimous consent that those are the funding levels for those projects,” he said.
Other initiatives include over $8 million for housing infrastructure development across the six counties, a terminal to bring commercial air service to Purdue University, and over $6 million for various trail projects along the Wabash River.
Walker said not all of the projects, such as the Purdue Airport expansion, will have an obvious impact on surrounding counties.
“Maybe intangible or immeasurable benefit for all of our counties, because that additional convenience will lead to additional economic development, and we know that will happen,” he said. “But harder to measure that those are benefitting people living in Warren County.”
Walker said other projects, such as the regional housing action plan, will have more tangible benefits. $100,000 will go to fund a regional housing study to identify need across the six counties and help create a proposal.
“[That is] maybe the first time for some of our counties that they’ve thought about creating a housing action plan,” he said.
Walker also pointed out that Tippecanoe County agreed to take less money for housing infrastructure compared with the surrounding counties - roughly $1 million compared with $1.5 million for Benton, Warren, White, Carroll, and Fountain counties.
“That, I think, is indicative of the ways we are working together,” he said.
Big picture, Walker said the funding will make the region more competitive, bringing in more economic development.
“My talking point is we’re knitting this region together and building the foundation for decades of success,” he said. “We’ll be able to significantly compete with other regions around the country at a level we haven’t been before.”
Walker said the various projects will begin moving forward throughout 2023.
