Source: (Photo: Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock)
RICHMOND, Ind. — The town of Richmond, Indiana in Wayne County may be small, but it’s doing some big things in the business world. The goal for the townsfolk is simple: more people, more business, more money.
“Blue Buffalo’s premium pet food company built a 200-million-dollar factory there and has just announced another 200-million-dollars will go into an expansion, adding jobs,” says Gerry Dick with Inside Indiana Business.
Richmond has faced some tough challenges. The population shrank last year, and most of the manufacturing businesses of yesterday have come and gone. But that’s then and this is now, says Dick, who tells WIBC’s Tony Katz there are several reasons why he believes the town is stepping out of it’s old shadow and paving the way for big business in the future.
“One I think is more so the relationship and proximity to I-70,” Gerry Dick explains, “that’s the other piece that’s happening there in addition to the economic development deals. More than 60-million-dollars in road and infrastructure projects are underway.”
Dick says another key to the town’s growth is the Hoosiers in the community who have had the vision to turn things around and pushed through hard times. He says the community is getting behind all of the different projects that are starting and continuing, and the “fruits of their labor” are beginning to show, as he puts it.
Blue Buffalo investments and I-70 improvements aren’t the only things fueling more growth for the town.
“A new apartment complex, nearly 40-million-dollars that is likely to happen,” Dick continues, “negotiations are still underway. The old retail store would be raised for a new apartment complex downtown.”
That would be the largest investment in downtown Richmond’s history, says Dick.
