The City of Noblesville recently released its year-end annual report. The report details major accomplishments from every city department and within the community during 2016, and each week, Current in Noblesville will be highlighting a portion of the report. This week, it’s economic development. To see the full report, visit bit.ly/2lDGclL.
STAY HERE GROW HERE
Stay Here Grow Here is a business retention and expansion program initiated in 2012 to provide a framework to continue and strengthen communication between the city and local business community. The Stay Here Grow Here initiative provides more business-specific solutions while using technology in a modern approach to economic development practices. At least 60 percent of new jobs come from businesses that are already in Noblesville. Current projects that are part of the Stay Here Grow Here initiative include:
- Metro Plastics Technologies: Agreed to invest $6 million to construct and equip a 72,000-square-foot facility. The assessed value of the land is expected to increase from $70,000 to more than $6 million after the project is complete.
- BlueSky Technology Partners, Inc.: Spending $6 million to build its corporate headquarters adjacent to the city’s Federal Hill Commons park, west of the White River.
- Verdure Sciences: Spending $3 million to relocate its office and expand the business and workers employed.
GOALS
Attraction: Embassy Suites by Hilton is building a 187,700-square-foot hotel with 198 suites, 20,000 square feet of conference space and 5,000 square feet of meeting space at the southwest intersection of Tegler Drive and Olio Road. The seven-floor hotel on 6.26 acres is part of a larger 15.04-acre development that includes a conference center and 367-space parking. Total capital investment for the land, hotel and conference center will be approximately $30 million.
Retention: Noble Industries, Inc. is staying in Noblesville and will expand its headquarters. The current footprint of the building is approximately 70,000 square feet, with an additional 52,400 square feet currently under construction. The agreement retains 65 employees and an additional 50 new jobs will be created.
Expansion: Metro Plastics Technologies is creating a 35-acre industrial park to expand its business. The area includes three business parcels at the southwest corner of Pleasant Street and Union Chapel Road, including Verdure Sciences, which will build a new 15,000-square-foot headquarters building at the park.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Noblesville Works: The soft-skills initiative finished its inaugural year and began its second in conjunction with the school calendar. The skills change monthly with the goal of providing strategies and collaborative approaches to improve workforce preparedness and training for individuals in the community.
PLEWS study: The results provide information to the city as it looks at potential uses of the vacant Firestone property.
Alley activation: Design and development of a formal plan to create more interest and use of the downtown alleys.
Wayfinding signage: The city is in the process of ordering new directional signage to make finding locations and parking easier in downtown Noblesville.
Cultural arts district: The economic development department helped create the Noblesville Cultural Arts District. The district received state designation in early 2017.
Hipstoric Nobelsville: Three “People, Places and Experiences” videos were produced to highlight the uniqueness of downtown.
Crosswalk art: Partnering with Nickel Plate Arts, two crosswalks on Eighth Street and Maple Avenue were turned into pieces of art – a paint tray and a scene with a firefighter ladder and rescue.
Continuing education: Two city employees completed 117 course hours and graduated from the Oklahoma University Economic Development Institute.
