Hi, I'm Jeff Ray, your host for Economic Outlook.

Thank you for joining us.

Each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts, the Northern Indiana RTA awarded a $42.5 million in ready 2.0 grant funds to 13 projects during its December meeting.

The grant funding will be used to leverage $613 million in total regional investments across the projects.

We'll dive deeper into the projects on today's show.

Ready funds will help advance 13 projects across the region.

We're diving deeper into those projects today with Kristen Pruitt, the president of Lake City Bank and board member of the Northern Indiana Regional Development Authority board, Dallas Virgil, the president and CEO of the Inova Federal Credit Union and another board member of the Northern Indiana Regional Development Authority.

And Bethany Hartley, the president and CEO of the South Bend Elkhart Regional Partnership.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

It's been a popular topic over the years to talk ready regional cities.

You all three have been in the middle of that.

So thank you for coming back a little bit.

And talk about that business come your way.

First.

Just a a reminder for folks.

I think you're so familiar that they don't need it.

But talk about the Elkhart Southern Region Partnership and what you do.

Sure.

So the South and Elkhart Regional Partnership covers five counties where regional economic development organization.

We're really focused on catalyzing economic development across that region, and working collaboratively, collaboratively across those county lines to bring greater impact to the region.

Ready is one of those opportunities.

We also do a lot of focus in entrepreneurship and talent attraction and development.

Great, Chris, let me come your way.

I teased in the opener that, about the northern.

You're a board member of the Northern Indiana Regional Development Authority.

If somebody who doesn't know what that is, tell us what that does.

So we meet, we're an appointed board by the, know mayors and commissioners, and we what we have done over the past ten years is distribute and, and monitor and oversee grant funding from the state and elsewhere, come your way and build on on the role on the RTA.

Talked a little bit about this.

Been around for ten years.

Give us a feel for, kind of what you've done a little bit over that, over that ten year period.

Well, we've evaluated a very large number of projects we've been through.

This will be our third funding round.

We started with regional cities.

Then there was ready one, ready to is the most recent round of funding.

Obviously there's a tremendous amount of research and analysis that has to go into each one of these projects, a lot of really quality projects.

And every single round we've looked at, and the challenge for our board is just to distill that down to the the projects that we think are going to be most transformational that meet the the state's objectives with their funding, as well as our own, strategic plan.

Right.

Because I'm, I come back your way of the truck regional collaboration for because as you tease it like this has been something that's been going on ten years.

Talk about the area kind of covered and why that why the regional collaboration is so important.

It's really interesting.

The 2015 Regional Cities grant was to the region, which was a new thing.

You know, we you know, we live regionally.

We don't think of ourselves as only living in Mishawaka or Elkhart or South Bend.

We think ourselves living in this general area.

But economic development efforts and other, other efforts had always been based on county or other, you know, city, county or city, boundaries.

And this the Regional Cities grant that really encouraged the three counties, Marshall, Saint Joe in Elkhart County to come together and think of ourselves from an economic development standpoint as a region, which means suddenly Saint Joe and Elkhart County weren't competing for necessarily the same business, and we could work together to offer businesses a regional strategy that would be much more appealing to potential employers.

And certainly, to, to their future employees.

So I think from your way.

So to build on Kristen's talk about regional collaboration, this is something that the state has recognized is pretty important going back to regional cities, with ready and ready, 2.0, talk about why that's been such an important priority from the state of Indiana.

Sure.

So I think the state recognizes, similar to what Kristen was saying, when we think about, greater than the sum of our parts and thinking about that collaborative effort, the funding and the resources can go a lot farther when you're working together instead of each individual county doing the exact same thing.

It's how might we be more efficient with these sort of projects?

I also think with the region, you know, on the Indiana side, we're a little over 520,000 in population.

And individually the counties obviously make that up.

But when you think about projects like the Beacon Aquatic Center, over in Elkhart, do we need another larger than Olympic size aquatic center in this region?

Not no is the answer because we have it now.

And that allows that more collaborative nature of, driving across county lines and working together.

You know, the state went from 17 regions to 15 regions through the process and our region.

Fortunately, because of the leadership of the three of you sitting around this table, has been working together for the past ten years, whereas some of these other regions, it took a lot of work to get ready for ready, and we were able to just naturally show up and sit down and already have that level of trust.

And it's really fostered a lot of growth in our area, a lot of, knowledge sharing information sharing.

It's been a really beautiful thing to, to experience and be a part of over the last couple of years.

But I'm going to stick with you.

One more question.

So so I think about, kind of regional plans put together kind of how those plans align with state talk at a, at a high level, kind of the, the, maybe some of the priorities from the state and, and our plan and, and that are critical to execute on.

Yeah.

So from a state level, which we are aligned with the state of Indiana is losing talent.

And we have a lot of really great opportunities in the state and in this region.

And so the thrust when ready one was first announced is we need to attract and retain our talent into the state.

And each of the regions has its own unique identity to help support that overarching mission.

And so at a regional level, we have been committed to that since regional cities ten years ago.

And we continue to to advance those opportunities and activities.

And so we know when we have enough people here, there's a thriving economy, there's more prosperity, and it's able to open the door to opportunities like what has happened in Saint Joe County with the big project announcements.

It helps make us more attractive to these companies that will offer great paying jobs, career opportunities, benefits and what region wouldn't want to have that.

And so the state has really looked at improving quality of place through these sorts of programs.

It is a very unique program in the country.

There, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't another program like this that a state is offering.

The state of Indiana also is very business friendly, which is a wonderful thing.

On the other side of that, you have to be business and people friendly.

And this is that answer to the people friendliness of, well, what am I going to do after 5 p.m.?

What does that look like statewide and in this region, too?

So I think this has been a very, well-received program statewide and from state selectors that are looking to the state and to our region knowing that the state is supporting in this way, knowing that economic developers are supportive in this way is a is a right to win differentiator.

So, Kristin, come your way.

So the, the ideas have the the challenge of sort of weighing through all these projects and trying to decide which best align with priorities in advance.

Talk to us a little bit.

I would say before we get into ready to just more broad categories, things that we've funded in the past, you know, it's housing quality place.

Talk to us a little bit about some of those priorities that you've been able to, chip away at before.

Yeah.

The it's evolved since regional cities, which was a very much a quality of place kind of initiative.

And that was really important.

And there's there's no way we could be where we are today had we not done those things because because those things really worked.

So I think about Howard Park, I think about the Potawatomi Zoo, I think about the trails, and, at the Elkhart Aquatic Center, and I so, so the investment in what it's in things that are amenities to make this a better, richer, more enjoyable, enjoyable place to live.

It was really the first step, because what we had to do was, as a region, the people who live here had to really start feeling good about living here.

Right.

And I think that was such a that was it was kind of an unspoken, benefit of what, what happened as a result of regional cities because people would look around, they'd go to Howard Park, they'd go down to the river by Dallas's office, which which I imagine 20 years ago was not the place to be.

And they'd look around and they'd say, what?

This is really cool.

And when we start thinking that about ourselves, we become ambassadors for this region.

So we're talking the region up to our friends, to, you know, people who are visiting.

And there's a lot of visitors that come in town every, every year, to, for, for various attractions.

And then suddenly South Bend is in Elkhart and this region, they're on the map as being places people want to be.

And so then that makes possible, the projects that follow.

Right.

The housing and housing has been a focus of all three, but much more heavily and ready to.

But but also, pretty heavily and ready one and, and especially, downtown housing.

I said that really investment in the urban cores in our area to create density and really, vibrant downtowns, which is really fun to see come alive.

I think of Mishawaka as a really good example of what's happened there.

And we were a part of that, at the, the, the first housing, the big mill project there, for regional cities.

Great.

Well, guys, thank you.

We're going to take a quick break here in the studio, and we'll be right back.

am here monkeying around with Josh.

Desk job.

But you know we are talking.

I could not resist myself the entire drive over to the zoo.

I was thinking about a great one liner monkeying around.

I think I've heard about all of them.

So are you ready to talk to me, dad?

Jokes are here today, so thank you for having us.

Absolutely.

Thanks for joining us.

And on a cold winter day.

But it's warm in here.

The animals seem comfortable.

Let's talk a little bit about Potawatomi Zoo and what's great part of our community, it's become from where it began.

How long have you been at this?

You know, so I've been here about nine years now.

Only about five years is director.

And you're right, it's been just this amazing whirlwind, even just in the last five years.

We were kind of talking about that before.

Just the changes that have happened in the direction we've gotten.

So, it seems like not a short amount of time, but I feel like it's been a lifetime of work that we've put into this place.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's not often that people think of zoos being on such a rocket ship trajectory, but in fact, this zoo in the past ten years, as we were chatting about, has been on this meteoric rise, almost, I would say about 60 to 75% of your zoo has been redeveloped.

It absolutely has from the front entrance all the way back.

Yeah.

I mean, we're truly calling this the revitalization period of the zoo because the amount of work that's happened just in the last six, seven years has been more probably in the 100 year history that we've had at the zoo.

When you think about the just the amount of work and money that's gone into the short period of time, and as our viewers may know, and as you may know, any, renovation, any refurbishment, any, restoration is expensive.

It is it is, one of the things that you and your team are great at is raising funds to help offset that.

You don't make enough money at the gate.

We need right now.

We do not.

No, no, no, we being a nonprofit, a lot of people don't realize that everything that comes in through admissions, attractions, all of that pretty much goes back into the operations of the organization.

I mean, our payroll alone over $2 million a year.

So a lot of that money goes to that.

So all these improvements, you see is through fundraising, state grant funds, it's it's all has to be for capital projects.

So a completely different pot.

So you know, and that's really the the episode today that we're filming is about ready.

Yeah.

So and some state economic development dollars I know that you applied and I think that, it's fair to say you were an award.

We were.

We really were, I think award winners the right word, because I know that of the $42.5 million or so that was allocated to our region, meaning the Elkhart, South Bend, Marshall County region, there were a lot of applicants for that money, weren't there?

There were.

And we're blessed because we and we were talking about, you know, we've probably put in about $25 million into the zoo in the last six years.

And I'd say good.

When I was looking at about nine and a half to 10 million was just from private donations.

And then you've got money coming in from the ready grants.

So when you think $1 million, you know, in, in the scheme of 25 million, what does that mean?

It's huge for us because it's really about the recognition of what that means.

We're truly being recognized as a regional destination.

We're bringing in talent from out of state, gives a people a reason to want to live in this community.

When I first moved here, we talked about when you really wanted to go to a zoo.

I'd hear people say it all the time.

You go down to Fort Wayne, you go to Brookfield.

It's the complete opposite.

Now we hear people say, oh my gosh, we've got this in our own backyard.

It's amazing.

We went to a big zoo.

We spent a fortune.

It's so great to come to Potawatomi, see the changes.

We've really made that change.

And when we can get something like the ready grant, it's just.

What a compliment.

It's just really, really.

The state is recognizing that we are truly a regional destination and something we can be proud of.

And in on episodes, other episodes that we've done for this show, when you are developing the economy part of it, whether we've realized in modern times is creating a quality of place.

Yeah, this recognition really does recognize that the the zoo, the Potawatomi Zoo does increase the quality of Michiana.

It does.

It really does.

You know, I, I joke that when I started here, we call it the cute little zoo right here, that all time.

Well, it's a cute little zoo, and I always use that term because it was little square cages.

It wasn't what you thought of as a modern zoo.

And with the changes that we made, bringing in giraffes, upgrading lions, the new cafe lodge, people now see that we are a nonprofit.

Our mission is conservation and education, but we are a quality place of life.

We're seeing a whole different demographic.

No longer is it just parents and kids.

We're seeing elderly couples.

We're seeing younger people at date night.

It's really changing the entire way that people view this zoo for our community and people do they they want to know if you have a good zoo in your community, do you have a good parks?

Do you have all these things?

It helps when people are moving here.

So before I let you go, let's talk a little bit about what you're going to do with the money.

Yeah.

My gosh we're excited.

So this is the first zoo expansion in the zoo's history.

So we're a 23 acre zoo.

We're going to be expanding two acres into the park, and it's going to be dedicated to tigers and leopards.

And really, why that's so important is for our accreditation to be a legit, legit zoo.

We had to get our big cats out of cages, so this is the last phase of that.

So this gets all of our big cats into what we consider modern zoological, you know, the standards and exhibit tree.

We'll be able to breed these endangered species.

It's going to be a whole mixed, species with deer.

There's a, feline freeway that goes over sika deer.

The deer live underneath.

So it's going to be pretty exciting because it's we have not expanded the zoo.

And people are always people are amazed by what we can have.

We were able to utilize our space.

So, I think people are gonna be pretty excited about this.

And, you know, as, as we were said before I went on air, I've got three children and we've raised these kids at the zoo.

At this zoo.

And one of the last vestiges of the old zoo is where the tigers and.

Yeah, yeah, big cats are.

So that's going to be an amazing project.

When can our viewers look forward to.

You know what?

If we can break ground if everything goes as well, we got about a million and a half, more to raise, but, it looks like we're all on schedule to break ground this summer.

So summer 25, with hopefully opening by the end of the summer of 26.

So, there's a good chance by the end of next year, you would, actually be able to, experience this new habitat.

So.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you.

We are.

We are today.

Okay.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah.

Once again, I think this is such a great story.

Not only of the zoo's history over the past 5 to 10 years of becoming such an amazing part of our community, but also how our economic development dollars are helping to make that next step a reality.

All right, we're back in the studio.

We're continuing our conversation about ready 2.0, guys, thanks for hanging around a little bit longer.

So Bethany, tuck your way.

So so ready to point.

Oh we kind of set the stage a little bit in the first half.

Give us kind of nuts and bolts.

What happens.

Stay what we got, that kind of thing.

Sure.

So ready to, we were aware of the opportunity following ready one announcements and allocations.

And so last year, early last year, we submitted an application on behalf of the region.

And that process unfolded in workshop stakeholder engagement and really refining what we had submitted for Ready One and our regional plan.

Again, it's very fortunate that we already function as a region.

And so putting that application together, was pretty smooth for us.

We in this round, we didn't have to go down and do a presentation as we had for regional cities and for ready one.

We did go down for the announcement.

The RTA did, with Governor Holcomb, in April of last year.

And we were, aware that we received 45 million, which was the highest award.

We were one of six to receive 45 million.

And if you look at the map, actually, of the state, it's all the border, the counties on the the regions on the borders of the state, which is quite interesting.

Kind of the gateways into the state.

And so we were one of six to receive that, that then unfolded a process, a public process of application in our region, because the RTA is a public body, it was prudent of us to put out a public RFP request for proposals.

We had an online submission portal.

We did receive a total of 53 applications.

That portal closed at the end of August of 2024.

Due diligence was being done from August to November of last year by the staff, by some of the RDA.

The RDA members were taking the time.

These were quite comprehensive applications.

So outside of their full time jobs, they were reading all of the applications.

And then we asked, a few of the folks to come and present to the RDA in November of last year to answer any questions they might have had and to give some more clarity.

Excuse me, an update on if any of their numbers or their capital stack had changed, which was a really great step to include in the process because we got to know who these these folks were.

And then the RDA from there in December of last year, just a couple weeks ago, announced the allocations to the 13 projects that they, scored as being the most impactful, the most significant and most transformative for the entire region, which covers all three of the counties.

So now we go forward into, the exciting contracting negotiations and moving forward with, with getting the dollars out the door to these amazing projects.

So does come your way.

So so you have this test Bethany mentioned.

You've got $40 million, but it got a lot of people wanting money.

It's put us in your head or the head of the RDA members a little bit thinking about, you know, how do we how do we figure out which projects, provide the biggest bang for the buck for the region?

That's a good question.

And a lot goes into it, obviously, with five RDA board members, all volunteers, we all come at it from a little bit different perspective.

I think, we obviously have different connections and contacts.

But really what it comes down to is what we're going to be transformative projects.

What's really going to make a difference that we can look back on in 3 to 5 years and say, okay, now that that's something that is going to help change the region and the community that we decided to go in and serve.

As Christine said earlier, housing is a big deal.

Across our entire region, we have a very aging housing stock, and it's a major problem.

And it's not just low income housing.

It's not just high income housing, just in general housing stock in our regions, too.

Too old.

And it's not expanding fast enough.

Obviously, if people don't have a place to live, they can't come and, work and, live and spend their recreational life in your community.

So that's a major concern for our entire region.

And, you know, addressing areas that are difficult to build in, it's easy enough to go out out into Greenfield and, put up an apartment complex or a housing project much more difficult in the inner city.

As Kristen mentioned earlier, the first time you put a shovel in the ground, you don't know if you're going to discover an old industrial site that may have some environmental concerns.

Or maybe an enormous concrete footer that's going to cost you $1 million to remove.

So I think this funding, is very helpful on those kind of projects.

That makes it more attainable for a developer to come in and take on an otherwise, either unapproachable project or something that they may have needed or other forms of public assistance.

So I think we all took a look at that this round also had a lot of influence around anything related to child care.

Another major concern for our our market in all markets, probably, but we don't have enough of it and we need more of it.

So we wanted to ensure that we helped along those organizations.

We're going to help solve some of those issues.

Hey, Chris, let me come your way, but put your banker hat on for a second, because I do think Dallas started to touch on this important issue.

Why this, why leveraging these funds is is so critical, right?

There's some risk or our costs are high and we need to keep rents at a certain level.

And we're leveraging major private investment.

Talk a little bit about just the that money side of it if you will.

Yeah.

So a lot of these deals are would be really hard to do without some grant money because you know, one of our one of the award recipients described it very simply.

He said, you know, the rent you can charge in, in Elkhart, Indiana, isn't what you could charge in Carmel, Indiana, say, but a two by four cost the same both places.

So the cost of putting these projects up, particularly in the in the sort of post-pandemic world when when costs skyrocketed and, and and then interest rates eventually went up, these projects would really not be able to get done without some support.

This sort of sort of it just I sort of look at it as a little bit of a head start on a, on a capital raise.

Right.

So it makes it makes the deal.

It risks the deal.

You know, to the extent of the grant funds, it's it's, it's a big benefit.

I know, as a, as a bank, when we look at deals that would have this kind of, of grant money in it, that's a much more appealing deal, to, to lenders.

Right.

So time is flying.

So why don't I make sure we get to a couple projects and so on to talk to both you for a second.

So, so talk to us just at a really high level about a couple projects maybe that you're most excited about or that got funded that, that our viewers should pay close attention to coming up and if any come to mind.

What?

Yeah.

So so I would say two and I'll be quick the Michigan, the Monroe and the Western and the work on the western side of the near west side of South Bend.

I think those are really cool projects because those have been neglected areas, where there is housing stock, but it's not up to par.

And there is an entry there, two entry points into downtown South Bend.

And I think if we can expand really the beautification and the, the, the, the, the vibrancy of the downtown area, then then that, that makes the sort of lifts all the boats and then downtown becomes even better.

And then the other one that I'm most excited about, probably the one I am most excited by, is 100 Center in Mishawaka, the old 1853 complex that was probably the heart of Mishawaka, back in the day and has fallen into disrepair.

And it's going it's a, you know, a 40 some million dollar project of over almost 180,000ft², I think of mixed use, some some residential, some childcare, a lot of retail entertainment.

It's going to be a real destination.

And that continues that momentum of, of, you know, coming out of downtown Mishawaka and also in our last couple of similar, particular projects you're excited about.

Our viewers should know more about that, that you awarded funds to all the projects each time, right?

Yeah.

The two I really find, are going to be transformation or have a big impact on the region.

One is the River District in Elkhart.

And because it's already underway, it needs a little more catalyst to really get that, good core of, rental and, other types of housing going so that it can become self-sustainable.

It's also a really difficult part to develop because it is an old industrial site, and there's also floodplain issues through much of it.

So take some real work to be able to get a developer to come in there and work on that.

The other one I'm really looking forward to seeing is the Bremen project, because they're more of a regional or a rural area, and they really haven't had much in the way of housing starts in, what, 25 years or so.

So I'm looking forward to seeing that connect, the southern part of our region.

You know, it's been exciting.

As I look at your list and it's because it's it's Bremen, it's Culver, it's New Carlisle, South Bend, Mishawaka, Goshen, Elkhart.

It's and I think you did a phenomenal job of taking what are some very difficult, projects.

Within our last minute just kind of final word to our viewers again, they should be excited about this, but there's still some time happening.

Give us just the final word on on what they should be watching for on these projects.

Yeah.

So I think all of these projects are getting underway or will be getting underway in the next year or so.

And to watch cranes come in to watch ground be broken.

Just paying attention to shows like this to to the news to see what they can be proud of and what they should be excited about.

Because this is for the residents.

First and then for new residents second.

So I think that's really exciting, and I think it's bringing a new capital to the region that we haven't seen before.

If people want to find out more about these projects, where should they go?

They can go to South Bend, elkhart.org, and it's on our website under the ready pages.

Awesome guys.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for your good work, especially your volunteer work.

That's now, spanned a decade in our community.

Thank you so much for the great difference you've made in these funds to appreciate having you all here.

And we'll have you back for updates as this goes on.

Thank you.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching or listening to our podcast Find Economic Outlook at Night.

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I'm Jeff Rea I'll see you next time.

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Thank you.