A major agriculture production facility is eying land near Milford, the Kosciusko Economic Redevelopment Commission heard this morning.
George Robertson, president of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation, told the commission the 270-acre site north of the railroad intersection at Milford Junction is one of three sites considered for the $70 million facility.
“It looks like we’re in first place now,” he said of the competition nine months in the works, noting they should know in a matter of weeks.
He estimated the facility could bring in between 70 and 100 jobs, though he said it’s a state-of-the-art operation that would require a high-skill level.
A tax increment finance district would need to be established quickly, which would work in conjunction with a TIF district Milford is trying to establish for recently annexed land south of the rail intersection, he said.
The land wouldn’t need sewer and water infrastructure improvements but it would need road development, he observed, especially to the Ind. 15 overpass at the tracks.
He said he believes the TIF districts could fund the overpass, which commission member Bruce Woodward estimated would take about two years.
Robertson said the company was attracted by the rail junction at the site as well as a “pretty basic incentive package,” such as “relatively speaking minor tax abatements,” but that the “big drive for them was the price of the land.”
He added that only a quarter of the land would be needed for the facility, allowing for the possibility of another business on the site.
