South Bend poised for progress in 2016 (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne: 2015, movers, home)

[ColdAilment]

Construction activity was up 66% for the 2015 year in St. Joseph County. Some 456 commercial building permits were issued in 2015 with estimated commercial construction costs of more than $480 million poised for 2016, a new 200,000 square foot building for Chase Plastics is in the works, AM General, who formerly built the Humvee, has a new contract to produce the Mercedes-Bens R-Class vehicle at their Mishawaka plant, General Sheet Metal broke ground on a $22.7 million plant in the Blackthorn area, Great Lakes Capital broke ground on a $100 million mixed use office project, Notre Dame construction for the Campus Crossroads project is poised to be at $400 million.

Notre Dame recently teamed up with partners in the aerospace industry for construction on the new Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory at Ignition Park, a new $500 million natural gas powerplant is in the works in New Carlisle, and a new $38 million VA Clinic opening in Mishawaka. County wide unemployment is also down at around 4%, its lowest in years. St. Joseph County and South Bend are also for the first time in years estimated to have a population growth, this could be the turning point for the South Bend area, which in 2011 was listed as one of America's Dying Cities.

http://www.newsweek.com/americas-dying-cities-66873

Sources for information/stats/figures come from South Bend Tribune.

A recent video showcasing South Bend has just been released:

[vimeo]151383939[/vimeo]
https://vimeo.com/151383939

[cdr18]

South Bend will always have a major presence for a couple of reasons:

1) Home to the University of Notre Dame
2) Economic center/hub for the entire Metro area

There has been a resurgence and it is great to see it happening. South Bend is also blessed with being near Mishawaka, the commercial hub of Michiana, as well as Elkhart County, which is the manufacturing hub of the region. You would be shocked to find out the amount of people who commute to Elkhart County from St. Joseph County. The numbers are staggering.

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by cdr18

South Bend will always have a major presence for a couple of reasons:

1) Home to the University of Notre Dame
2) Economic center/hub for the entire Metro area

There has been a resurgence and it is great to see it happening. South Bend is also blessed with being near Mishawaka, the commercial hub of Michiana, as well as Elkhart County, which is the manufacturing hub of the region. You would be shocked to find out the amount of people who commute to Elkhart County from St. Joseph County. The numbers are staggering.

You're right about Notre Dame, naysayers like to compare South Bend to the likes of Gary or Flint, but the presence of Notre Dame will always be a huge bonus to the area. A study estimated that Notre Dame contributes approximately $1.3 BILLION to the local economy, that's huge.

Not too shocked on the commute, I know a lot of people who work at the manufacturing plants and the hospital in Elkhart, Elkhart is the RV capital of the world, and Elkhart County's unemployment rate just went under 4%!

South Bend's Metro population is only about 330,000, because it only consists of St. Joseph County and Berrien County, if Elkhart County were to be added it'd be at just over 530,000, but that may never happen because Elkhart is its own standalone city and in a separate county. The South Bend area also won the Regional Cities award, a $42 million grant from the state meant to spur up to $700 million in private and commercial investment. Fort Wayne and Evansville also won this award.

To top it off, Indiana is the second fastest growing state in the Midwest, second to only Minnesota. I imagine most of the movers to this state are headed for Indianapolis, but not all of them!

[cdr18]

South Bend is definitely not like a Gary or Flint. Could it have been without the presence of Notre Dame? Possibly. But I see things only improving from here on out.

Indiana has a lot going for it. One reason I choose to live in northern Indiana, besides growing up there, is its presence to Lake Michigan and the communities along the lake in the summer. In my opinion, summers in Western Michigan is about as good as it gets.

I really wish they would include the whole Michiana region into the Metro area population, because in all reality, there are many people who commute within the region and vice versa. But, I don't really have a say in that.