While it is a development happening in Northwest Indiana, the announcement of an $ 11 Billion dollar investment by Amazon Web Services near New Carlisle will almost certainly have some benefit for Southwest Michigan.
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb last week confirmed that Amazon will make the largest business investment in the history of the state to build a high-tech web services facility along US 2, South of New Carlisle. The development is near another huge economic boost for Indiana, the General Motors/Samsung battery plant.
It’s frustrating for Michigan economic development officials that these projects are ‘so close, yet so far’. However, it’s a fact of life they live with every day. Indiana’s tax and business climate is more welcoming than Michigan’s. So, big projects like these usually end up South of the state line.
That said, it is fair to expect some positive spin off benefits from Amazon’s ‘big build’ in New Carlisle. The site of the development is about a half hour from Southern Berrien County, New Buffalo, Niles, Buchanan. It’s 45 minutes from Benton Harbor. For Twin Cities workers, that’s closer than a commute to the industrial job centers of Elkhart and Kalamazoo, where many currently commute.
And there is another factor: quality of life and the ‘Lake Michigan lifestyle’ that we enjoy in Berrien County. Many workers are willing to pay the price of a slightly longer commute to live in Michigan’s Great Southwest as opposed to Indiana. That’s not meant to be critical of our neighbors to the South—the other half of ‘Michiana’. However, we all know the ‘draw’ of those Lake Michigan sunsets and beaches, as well as our agricultural bounty, often just across a fence line from our homes. We live in a special place that’s not to be taken for granted!
So, while the massive data servers will fill gigantic white box buildings at New Carlisle, it’s fair to predict some of those 1,000 new Amazon employees will be drawn to make their non-work lives in Southwest Michigan. Shopping for groceries, buying homes, raising families. Becoming Michiganders.
By Gayle Olson, MOTM Contributor
