Support for this edition comes from Food Finders Food Bank. Get tickets now for Beers and More Along the Wabash, an annual festival set for Saturday afternoon that benefits Food Finders. More than 20 Indiana brewers, distillers, wineries and non-alcoholic beverage makers will be on hand for tastings from 2-5 p.m. Saturday at Riehle Plaza in downtown Lafayette. There will be live music, food trucks and party games. Get tickets here.
NEW $890M PROJECT UPS CATERPILLAR RENOVATIONS TO $1.6B THIS DECADE FOR LAFAYETTE PLANT
Planned renovations and new equipment totaling $890 million at Caterpillar’s Lafayette Large Engine Center received praise from the mayor and initial approval Thursday for pair of tax abatements tied to the project from the Lafayette Redevelopment Commission.
Combined with a recent $725 million that went into an expansion and new machinery at the plant’s at 3701 South St., the proposed work would put Caterpillar’s investments at the Lafayette site at more than $1.6 billion this decade.
Company officials told the redevelopment commission Thursday morning that the company was evaluating its expansion opportunities in the city and that the new round was considered “to modernize operations, improve manufacturing efficiency and enhance long-term production capabilities” at plant that has 1,995 employees. The work doesn’t include an expansion of the plant, they said. And work would be done in the next couple of years on the Lafayette campus.
“We don’t get these opportunities all the time for these kinds of dollar amounts,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said Thursday. “This really helps, long term, keep that plant in this community and productive in this community. It shows Caterpillar’s commitment to Lafayette.”
