Thursday, March 22, was a night to celebrate four years of investment, inspiration and achievement at the Indiana Welcome Center for the Lake County Economic Alliance.
Brian Hittinger, Chairman of LCEA for 2018, thanked everyone that turned out to celebrate the 4th year of this regional partnership, and the public and private sector investors who fund the LCEA who put boots on the ground to get things done in Lake County.
Hittinger personally thanked Karen Lauerman and Don Koliboski who were signed on to lead the LCEA.
“You have provided this organization with great vision, and it’s because of you that Lake County is a better place to live, work and raise a family,” said Hittinger.
Don Babcock, Director of Economic Development for NIPSCO followed Brian with his enthusiastic, “Good Evening Northwest Indiana,” welcome to everyone and then a personal welcome to region business legend Mark Massell, a mentor of Don. Massel once served NIPSCO as Chief Executive, led the Northwest Indiana Forum for many years, still resides in Valparaiso, and now serves as President of Indiana Energy Association.
Babcock sees Massell as a leader who, “Can take things from the impossible, to the improbable, to the inevitable.” This is easy to see as Massel considers the improvement of Northwest Indiana to be one of his professional loves.
“Northwest Indiana; and making this area as great a region as it can be and as it deserves to be,” noted Massel enthusiastically. “Economic Development needs to happen at the local, regional, and county level, and it has been wonderful to watch the way that they have taken hold of this and moved it forward.”
He then passed the lead to Karen Lauerman, who he commented is, "the real star of the show."
“Thank you to investors, our guests, and our sponsors. We truly appreciate the support that you give us, every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month and every year. We could not do it without you,” Lauerman said in her sincere opening remarks. “We all want job growth and to increase the potential capital investment in all 20 Lake County communities plus the unincorporated areas.”
Some of the long list of accomplishments already achieved by the LCEA include:
- Facilitating the creation of 2,500+ full-time jobs and more than $230 Million in capital investment by companies including, but not limited to:
- HDM Trucking (Gary).
- Hoist Lift Truck (East Chicago).
- RMA (Munster).
- Polycon (Merrillville).
- VanDrunen Farms (Crown Point).
- Aunt Millie’s Bakery (Lowell).
- Tri-State State Automation (Hammond).
- 185,000 SF Speculative Building (Merrillville).
- In 2017, 75 projects that conservatively reflect the potential for 5,000+ new jobs over $500 million of private investments.
- 150 projects in the current pipeline that would create 8,500+ jobs, and $1 billion in capital investment.
- Responds to more than 1,500 inquiries annually from companies, developers, consultants, and real estate professionals over various topics.
- Generates leads independently and responds to all regional and IEDC leads, that totals 245 responses to active projects through site submissions, RFIs and RFPs.
- Conducts site visits, more than 200 throughout the county in 2017.
- Tracks project activity and follow-up from inquiry to closure, utilizing entered information for data analysis, and trends and needs.
- Conducts business retention and expansion visits, garnering feedback, and ideas to further assist existing companies grow and prosper in Lake County.
- Annually attends conferences, tradeshows, and engages in other key marketing activities as an individual county or through partnership with State, Region, and Adjacent Counties. LCEA coordinates on behalf of all the communities as one county.
- Collaborates with media partners to highlight well over 150 different topics with press releases and media coverage on the local, state, regional, and national basis (2017).
“IEDC [Indiana Economic Development Corporation] acknowledged that the LCEA responded to more inquires in our first six months than Lake County had done in the previous 3 ½ years,” explained Lauerman.
While thanking long term supporters and region leaders for the vision to create and fund the LCEA, Lauerman also recognized a large group of executives from EPIC, the young leadership component of the Crossroads Chamber.
“This is our next generation of leaders, and they are here tonight because they want to know what is going on in their county, and in their community, to make a difference,” said Lauerman.
Lauerman was particularly pleased to break some news about a new project on the horizon and what it would mean for Lake County.
“US Cold Storage closed their real estate deal for 80-acres at the intersection of I-65 and Route 2 to build a 260,000 square foot construction project and invest over $30 million dollars which will result in job creation of approximately 100 full-time employees, and projected construction jobs of around 600,” said Lauerman to great applause.
Lauerman summed up 2017 as well as the view ahead for the LCEA in closing:
“We're not done, we’re not stopping. Lake County is on a roll, and we are going to make a difference.”
