Sun King Brewery Comes to Fishers

At the August 18, 2014 meeting of the Fishers Town Council, they approved a $2.5 million economic development proposal to induce craft brewer Sun King, which is based in downtown Indianapolis, to expand its brewing operations to Fishers, along with a tasting room.  The location would be a currently-vacant parcel of land just north of 96th St. and east of I-69 on Kincaid Drive, near Fry's Electronics and Roche.

The proposal involves the town's customary use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to borrow the $2.5 million, most of which then goes apparently to infrastructure, although details were not apparent in the meeting.  But the proposal would also bring additional jobs and an industry not already present in the community.  Sun King is presently Indiana's second-largest craft brewer. A consultant hired by Sun King projected an economic impact on the area of this expansion of as much as $19.5 million.

Details of the TIF financing were not presented during the meeting, so afterwards, I approached Town Manager (and mayor-elect) Scott Fadness for details. According to Fadness, the plan is for the new taxes for this project (as opposed to the downtown projects) to actually pay for the debt service in full, that is, that the new taxes will equal or exceed the future principal and interest payments on the bonds.  And more, if for some reason they do not, then guarantees will be given by Sun King to cover the shortfall, so that the taxpayers are not on the hook for the difference.

Generally speaking, I do NOT like TIF districts.  They usually do not bring in enough new tax money to cover their own debt payments.  The "Depot" and "Switch" projects in Downtown Fishers are hundreds of thousands of dollars in the red (per year) this way.  The Sun King deal seems to avoid that problem. But the other problem is that use of TIF financing prevents the new tax money from going into the general property tax fund, which is the main source of funding for both Fishers, HSE Schools, and the Hamilton East Public Library.  All TIF projects suffer from that problem.

Nevertheless, I am cautiously optimistic about the Sun King deal. If the consultant's estimates are anywhere near accurate, then this will be a huge boost for the Fishers and northeast Indy economy, and a nice fit for an industrial park with lots of vacant land. New jobs will be created, a minimum of 20 are required and more projected.  Assuming this project succeeds (failure might leave Fishers holding the bag on the debt), then it will cost the taxpayers nothing.

I wish the financing were done differently, but it is revenue-neutral, it is NOT apartments with the potential to put more stress on the schools, and it is not competing with already-existing local businesses.  If this deal is done right, and much remains to be done, I will give a cautious thumbs-up on this project, and a hearty "Welcome to Fishers" to Sun King.

I also wish this process had been more transparent.  This item was not even available on the online agenda until a few hours before the meeting.  The Council neither allowed or solicited comments or questions from citizens.  And yet, they apparently DID heed the sharp criticism I and others had made about the downtown project's "red ink" (a term they REALLY hate), and tried to make this revenue-neutral. I would have preferred to make a low-interest loan to Sun King secured by a lien on the real estate, not a gift, or some other like financing, but in the end, even with the way it was done, I tend to approve.  I hope time proves me right.