City, IEDC negotiations continue on ‘innovation district’ for SK hynix chip facility

Chip packaging fab would sit on just the second Innovation Development District in the state, giving IEDC control of tax revenues. West Lafayette, IEDC, others working out what that will mean locally

(Photo: SK hynix)

With state and local incentives worth nearly $700 million offered to South Korean chip manufacturer SK hynix to plant a facility in West Lafayette, negotiations continue on the terms for the largest chunk of that package two weeks after terms went public on what’s touted as the largest economic development deal in Indiana history.

West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter said the city was working out arrangements in an Indiana Economic Development Corp. offer of up to $554.7 million of Innovation Development District tax rebates to SK hynix for its planned $3.87 billion chip packaging “fab” along Yeager Road, in the Purdue Research Park.

The Innovation Development District – a relatively new IEDC tool rolled out in state law in 2022 and just the second announced in the state – would mean West Lafayette first would have to relinquish a city-controlled tax increment finance district on the land and give control over revenues on the 90 acres to the state’s public-private economic development arm.

“We’re still working things out,” Easter said.