NHanced Semiconductors says it wants to make a $152-million investment in the now mostly vacant Cook Medical property at 301 N. Curry Pike west of Bloomington, so that it can establish a microelectronics manufacturing and packaging facility there.
By 2029, NHanced says that the company’s planned investments will be mostly completed. The company’s anticipated growth would mean 250 new jobs, paying an average of better than $100,000 a year, according to NHanced.
All that depends on a requested tax abatement from the Monroe County government.
For each of the next 10 years, NHanced is asking for 100-percent abatement of the taxes associated with the personal property investments at its planned facility. NHanced is not asking for any abatement of the taxes on the real property improvements that it makes.
Personal property refers to movable assets like equipment, while real property means immovable assets, like land and buildings.
Winning easy approval from all three Monroe County commissioners on Wednesday morning was the approval of a statement of benefits in support of the tax abatement for NHanced Semiconductors.
That was the first of two steps for the semiconductor company to receive its requested tax abatement. The second and final step for the abatement could come next Tuesday, Dec. 12. That’s when the tax abatement for NHanced Semiconductors is expected to appear on the meeting agenda for the Monroe County council, which is Monroe County government’s fiscal body.
At Wednesday’s meeting, county commissioners first got a briefing on the topic from county attorney Jeff Cockerill. Then Tim Conrad, with Stimulus Economic Development Advisors, gave the presentation on behalf of NHanced Semiconductors. Joining the meeting on the Zoom video-conference platform was Bob Patti, who is the CEO of NHanced Semiconductors.
Conrad called NHanced a kind of “unicorn,” because the company is a US-based manufacturer of semiconductor technologies, but has decades of experience in the semiconductor industry. Headquartered just west of Chicago, NHanced has recently begun operations south of Bloomington, near the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center.
The new Bloomington facility would have a cleanroom environment, Conrad said, in order to manufacture the fraction-of-a-hair’s-width devices.
The plan is to lease the space from the owner of the property, which is Cook Medical. That would require “a pretty significant investment” to get it up to the required cleanroom specifications, Contrad said.
To support the venture, NHanced would need engineering talent, Conrad said, but also hundreds of technicians, probably not requiring four-year college degrees.
That kind of talent does not exist right now Conrad said. That means the company will be making a “robust” training effort. In connection with that training effort, NHanced will be collaborating with Ivy Tech and with the K–12 area schools.
About the split between personal and real property in the tax abatement, Conrad said that most of it will be personal property.
With a requested tax abatement of 100-percent of the personal property taxes, that means most of the taxes that would otherwise be paid by NHanced, would be abated for 10 years. More typically, the percentage of taxes to be abated will incrementally decrease each year over a 10-year abatement period.
Conrad told county commissioners that the project would be “environmentally friendly.” He said there would be no heavy metals used in the manufacturing process. Conrad said, “They are not making transistors here—they’re printing on chips.”
As the basic benefits, which county commissioners were asked to sign off on, Conrad listed the following four: investment in an underutilized facility; creation of high-paying jobs; collaboration on advanced technology with local universities and schools; potential for attracting critical vendors and suppliers to locate nearby.
Speaking from the public mic in support of the tax abatement were: Jennifer Pearl, who is president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation; and Christopher Emge, who is director of advocacy and public policy for the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.
About the proposal from NHanced, president of the board of county commissioners Penny Githens said, “I appreciate the thoroughness of the presentation and also the information we’ve been given to review before this.” She added, “I’m encouraged to hear that we’re not looking at heavy metals and air pollution and things like that.”
The area where NHanced Semiconductors has requested a tax abatement is located in a TIF (tax increment finance) district. Commissioner Julie Thomas said that typically she is not a big supporter of granting a tax abatement in a TIF district, but said, “This TIF is a little bit different.”
Thomas added: “I think it’s pretty exciting to consider the possibility that Profile Parkway may get some long-needed business…investments.”
The county council’s Dec. 12 meeting, when the NHanced Semiconductor’s tax abatement is expected to be considered for final approval, starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Monroe County courthouse.
Good news
Very big news. So good to see the County Commissioners signaling support for this project. Our region is well-positioned to benefit from the Chips and Science Act co-sponsored by Senator Young. IU is making new material investments in this space as well. This particular tech sector, leveraging NSWC Crane, is poised to grow – in terms of new employers and well-paid jobs across all eduction / training levels – over the next several years. These employers typically provide a wage scale well-above our current Monroe County/State of Indiana average incomes. Well-worth the requested tax abatement.
How about tax breaks on our property taxes?? It’s getting to where Senior Citizens are being taxed right out of their homes! It’s terrible that this is not more of a discussion in Monroe County. Citizens want to live in their homes. Not expensive apartments you are approving to be built or expensive assisted living! Think about what people are facing! Not building more apartments that people can’t afford.
it seems pretty exciting but i don’t really know what to make of it.
i’m just disappointed we won’t be building 250 new homes. if this project really produces 250 new highly-paid professionals, monroe county’s only plan for housing them is for them to outbid 250 people working in less-lucrative fields.
The semiconductor industry contributes 31% to greenhouse gas emissions, uses a lot of water, and has pfc’s as a bi-product. I guess that property cannot change its stripes.