ANDERSON, Ind. —
In an announcement at their showroom Friday, Myers and Ford Autoworld said it would move and donate its current facilities on Broadway to Ivy Tech Community College for automotive training.
The new dealerships — about 48,000 square feet, combined — will be on the former General Motors Plant 11 site located just north of 38th Street on Scatterfield Road.
“Our new ultra-modern facilities, we hope, will bring a fresh and nice landscape to that area,” said Autoworld President Mary Jamerson.
Jamerson said they plan to break ground in the first quarter of 2013 and open later that year. She said Autoworld chose the lot because of its central location.
Autoworld expects to invest $7.5 million and eventually create up to 30 new jobs, making this the city’s 10th jobs announcement of the year.
Autoworld’s current 27,000-square-foot facility, located on about 5 acres on North Broadway, will be donated to Anderson’s branch of Ivy Tech Community College.
Mayor Kevin Smith said the announcement was a “significant milestone, because it’s using a former brownfield” industrial or commercial site left vacant by GM.
“I think people get frustrated seeing these vacant lots with a lot of potential, but that haven’t seen any growth,” Smith said.
The new location is also in the state’s last-granted CREED — Community Revitalization Enhancement District — zone, which has gone unused for nearly 8 years.
In a CREED district, the city can collect any sales tax that would normally go to the state. That money will go toward infrastructure within the district, making it more attractive to other developers.
“The best part is, this is a big-ticket item” which means more sales tax, Smith said about the vehicles Myer sells. “And that’s money we can turn around and plow right back into infrastructure.”
The district in Anderson is about 200 acres, 17 of which will be used by Autoworld. Once the district is activated the city can collect that sales tax for 15 years.
“This isn’t a new tax,” said Kevin Sulc, president of the Anderson Redevelopment Commission. “It’s just a way the properties can work for us,”
The amount the city can collect within the year is capped, but Sulc said the money would definitely help redevelopment.
Find Baylee Pulliam on Facebook and @BayleeNPulliam on Twitter, or call 648-4250.
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Related Photos
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Autoworld President Mary Jamerson unveils renderings of what Autoworld's new dealerships will look like and what the current Ford Autoworld location will look like after it is converted into an Ivy Tech Automotive Institute during a press conference on Friday. Don Knight
Discussion
Autoworld moving to old GM Plant 11
Car dealer's old facility to be donated to Ivy Tech
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