(La Porte County, IN) - Kingsbury Industrial Park could see further developments thanks to the announcement for a new electrical vehicle battery plant for outside New Carlisle that made public earlier today.

 

Matt Reardon of the Center for Economic Development, Planning and Government Affairs for LaPorte County said a percentage of the workforce at the plant in western St. Joseph County will almost certainly be from the La Porte area. He went further, explaining that that percentage means additional money coming back in wages and county income tax dollars paid on those earnings.

 

Reardon also noted that local contractors and subcontractors may be involved in the construction, while some of the materials needed for operating the plant could be from local suppliers.

 

“That’s always a good thing,” he said.

 

Reardon said he also believes a plant that size will shed light on the opportunities available for similar sized major companies to locate at Kingsbury Industrial Park.

 

He said the park will be served by two major rail lines, CSX and Canadian National, once a new rail bridge over Travis Ditch and an additional switch for directing trains in and out of the park is installed.

 

The LaPorte County Commissioners gave the green light for that work to begin last week.

 

Reardon said the work, costing over a million dollars, is being funded partially by a state grant and could be finished before the end of the year.

 

“Kingsbury is prepared for that level of investment. We’re ready to go,” he said.

 

Bert Cook, Executive Director of the LaPorte Economic Advancement Partnership, said another benefit could be higher demand for new housing and workers at the plant moving here to be closer to their jobs. That could result in population growth, which is a major focus of LaPorte Mayor Tom Dermody, he said. Dermody has set a goal of increasing the city’s stagnant population from about 22,000 to 30,000 by 2030.

 

A lot of new mostly higher end housing has been constructed in LaPorte since Dermody became mayor in 2020 and more across all income levels is about to start going up or on the drawing board.

 

"The growth of the population is something LaPorte has placed a premium on. LaPorte will be able to compete for those opportunities,” he said.

 

Cook also said more new housing also means additional property tax revenue for local governments.

 

Obviously, he said St. Joseph County is the major winner primarily because of collecting all of the property taxes generated by such a large facility but there are gains to be expected in the surrounding areas.  

 

“Anytime neighboring communities have success like that I think it has spillover positive effects in all of the other communities that are near and we are obviously very close.  I think there will be some really great impacts created here.”