$500M Power Plant to be Built in New Carlisle
According to the South Bend Tribune, plans to build a natural gas power plant near New Carlisle have new momentum, with groundbreaking expected for late winter or early spring, a developer has told St. Joseph County officials. Toyota Group and Ares Private Equity Group are partnering to build and operate St. Joseph Energy Center LLC, a plant that will rise at the northwest corner of Walnut and Edison roads. Read more.

General Sheet Metal Breaks Ground on $22.7M Plant
General Sheet Metal Works broke ground Tuesday morning on a $22.7 million new, state-of-the-art facility, which will be a showcase for advanced manufacturing. The company has spent the past three years carefully designing the 188,000-square-foot building to foster learning, collaboration and efficiency. Read more.


Great Lakes Capital & City of South Bend Partner to Develop Spec Building
The City of South Bend and Great Lakes Capital have partnered to develop a 200,000-square-foot building to spur development on the northwest side of South Bend. Under the terms of an agreement with Great Lakes, the city will lease the building at Ameriplex at Interstate 80/90 for five years or until it is 90% occupied. Read more.


Northern Indiana RDA Names Board Members
The new Regional Development Authority (RDA), approved by each of the St. Joseph, Marshall and Elkhart county councils this past June, has appointed its first five-member development board. The board serves as the governing body of the RDA and consists of business, finance, philanthropic and academic leaders from the Northern Indiana region. Read more.


Chamber of Commerce Relocates to American Trust Place
101 N. Michigan St., Ste. 300, South Bend, IN 46601
The St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce has relocated to American Trust Place, 101 N. Michigan St., Ste. 300, downtown South Bend. For more than 30 years, the Chamber has called the Commerce Center along South Bend’s East Race home. Now, the economic development organization will occupy the third floor of the American Trust Place building at the corner of Michigan and Washington streets. Read more.


$38M VA Clinic to Be Built in Mishawaka
A new VA Clinic is coming to Mishawaka in 2018. The Department of Veterans Affairs has approved construction of a new, state-of-the-art outpatient center near Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center. The 71,000-square-foot clinic will replace the existing, 18,000-square-foot facility on Western Avenue in downtown South Bend. Read more.


AM General Scores $373M Military Contract
South Bend-based AM General LLC has secured a $373 million military contract involving Humvee sales to multiple foreign governments. Production of the more than 2,000 vehicles will take place in Mishawaka and is expected to be completed at the end of April 2016. Read more.

TruPay Spends $1.4M on Expansion in Mishawaka
At the beginning of May, TruPay moved to a new headquarters in the Edison Lakes Corporate Park. TruPay’s new location at 810 Park Place is almost three times the size of its old building at 201 S. Main St. in downtown Mishawaka. Read more.


Increase in Michiana Business Index for Q2 2015
According to a survey conducted by Kruggel, Lawton & Company, LLC., the Michiana Benchmark Business Index increased slightly in the 2nd quarter of 2015. The overall Benchmark Business Index for the 2nd quarter was 59.82 out of a maximum possible score of 100, up from 58.97 for the 1st quarter of 2015. Two of the four survey components – Profitability and Revenue contributed to the modest increase.
Read more about the Michiana Business Index here.

Jeff's Take

2015: Economic Development Upswing

This spring and summer have been busy with new economic development activity throughout the county. 2015 likely will go down as one of our busiest years ever. At this time last year, we had $75 million in new building permits pulled. As of June this year, we’ve seen about five times more the activity, as that number is over $392 million. It’s a good time to be in St. Joseph County, especially if you are in the construction business.

Our area continues to benefit from the growth happening on and around the campus of the University of Notre Dame. The look of the campus is changing from every direction, as new construction is popping out of the ground on all corners of the campus. New residence halls, research facilities, classroom space and student activity space are keeping those in the skilled trades very busy meeting with the aggressive completion schedule. The university’s growth is critical for our region and has been a real catalyst for other growth around the area.

If you are out on the northwest side of South Bend, steel is popping out of a field that used to grow corn on four major distribution projects. Chase Plastics, Hubbel-RACO and FedEx are underway at the Ameriplex 80/90 development, with a new spec building well suited for future distribution or logistics now set to follow right behind. General Sheet Metal Works has broken ground on their new project, Beacon Parkway in Mishawaka is ready for new development, and Trinity Place will be relocated for the new VA Hospital in Mishawaka.

Major downtown residential construction projects are moving forward such as the renovations at the former Hoffman and LaSalle hotels in South Bend and at the Barak River Rock in Mishawaka. On top of that, unemployment continues to inch down, now approaching full employment.

Much work remains to be done. We must build on this year’s momentum and position ourselves for an even better 2016. The Chamber and our partners stand ready to do just that. 

Email me | Follow

Commercial Construction Activity Report

June 2015 CCAR Report (PDF) | Previous CCAR Reports click here

Business Expansion & New Investment Report

2nd Quarter 2015 BENI Report (PDF) |  Previous BENI Reports click here

Unemployment Numbers: April 2015

Elkhart 3.9% | Fulton 4.4% | Kosciusko 4.0% | Marshall 4.0% | St. Joseph 5.0%


Economic Development Investors
Thank you to our investors. For more info, click here