Regional Development Association Works to Grow Northwest Indiana Business Through Transit

The establishment of the Regional Development Association (RDA) has helped to fuel economic growth by stimulating a more robust workforce and transportation system via transit development districts (TDD). Through improving the transportation system across Northwest Indiana, particularly the South Shore train line, RDA is elevating Northwest Indiana as a place to work and grow professionally.

This, of course, has a ripple effect as it more effectively fuels area businesses to grow, too. Notable developers often see higher return in areas with a higher growth rate.

“The idea behind the transit development districts was to accelerate the return on investment from the state’s investment in the commuter rail projects in Northwest Indiana when the RDA had begun those projects and even prior to those projects,” said Dave Wellman, director of communications of Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. “We’ve done some studies looking at the economic impact, and those studies said it was going to bring in about $2.5 billion worth of investment over 20 years. About $2 billion of that would be private investment, with the balance being the public investment needed.”

RDA is collaborating with state and municipal governments. The state legislator was very enthusiastic about the $2 billion slated total return. However, they were also keen to speed up the process, and so the TDDs were born.

“The state legislature loved the idea about the $2 billion worth of investment as a return, but they weren’t so high on it taking 20 years,” said Wellman. “They want to create a way to speed that along and the transit development districts were their answer.”

TDD is focused on the areas of Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Portage, Munster, and Dyer. There are as many jobs in Chicago as there are in Indiana. Through the TDD strategy, commuters from these five cities in Northwest Indiana will also have easier, improved access to Chicago.

In addition to growth incentives, there are related tax incentives as well through this initiative.

“The transit development districts provide the RDA with some tax dollars,” said Wellman.

The TDDs are helping to speed this up.

“Those tax dollars take time to generate and so the TDDs have been established over the past several years, and most of them are just now starting to generate. That’s kind of the biggest thing – we’re starting to see some funds,” said Wellman.

As a result, the project is starting to witness cash flow.

“The RDA, after putting them together and talking about it for several years, is finally at the point where there’s now actual cash available for us to look at getting incentives and working with local communities to help to boost development in those districts,” said Wellman.

To learn more about TDD, its incentives, its overall strategy, and its economic impact, visit nwitdd.com.