Plans for manufacturing developments move through South Bend Common Council

 

The South Bend Common Council passed tax abatements for two major manufacturing developments, both pouring a combined $242 million into facilities and operations.

The first expands AM General following its recent deal with the US Armed Forces to produce joint light tactical vehicles.

The five-year contract calls for a need for a 167,000-foot expansion to the facility, a total investment of $12 million.

Once the site is activated, they estimate annual taxes would be in the range of $600,000 a year, almost double what it is now.

The company also plans to hire 15 more full-time employees as part of the deal.

The council passed the resolution 9-0.

A second resolution, approving a tax abatement to modernize and expand an ethanol plant on South Bend’s southwest side, was passed 7-2.

The $230 million investment from Verbio LLC comes after it acquired the plant this year.

The German biofuel company has made a commitment to spend that $230 million in investment into the plant over the next three years, as well as bring in more local jobs in green energy, with plans to hire eight additional employees and retain the current 61.

They say a new energy will be produced at the plant and would be only the second biorefinery like this in the country.

“This is exciting for the city of South Bend to land Verbio’s only second in the nation and fourth globally, but that South Bend has Indiana's first bio refinery,” said South Bend council member Rachel Tomas Morgan.

Monday’s vote abated more than $16 million worth of Verbio’s tax liability and more than $600 thousand for AM General.