Indiana company looking at local sites

Van Wert independent staff report

According to Van Wert Economic Development Director Cindy Leis, an Indiana-based Fortune 500 company is considering two sites in the Van Wert area, as well as one in Hicksville, as the location for its operations.

The company, which has not been identified to protect its confidentiality during the site selection process, is one of five leads provided to Van Wert by JobsOhio’s Project Goldstar, Leis said.

She added that the unidentified company is looking at a 40-acre site in Vision Industrial Park, as well as a similar-size privately owned parcel of land south of Van Wert on U.S. 127, in addition to an unidentified site in the Hicksville area.

While the company currently has 1,100 employees, many of those employees would likely commute to their jobs at an Ohio plant, since the present facility is not that far from Van Wert or Hicksville. If the company would relocate to this area, though, it would mean significant income tax revenues to the area that lands the project.

Leis said she and Mayor Don Farmer have been working to prepare an incentive package that would include tax abatement and a discount on the purchase of land.

According to Leis, her office had kept the negotiations confidential, which is usual in such cases, but decided to provide some details on the project after information was publicized by a Defiance newspaper reporting on a meeting of the Defiance County Community Improvement Corporation.