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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGov. Mike Braun, as expected, signed a bill Thursday requiring the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to be more transparent when it makes large land purchases for major projects like the massive business park in Boone County.
The bipartisan bill is one of the only pieces of legislation passed in this year’s session that attempts to rein in the agency’s reach. Bill author Sen. Brian Buchanan, R-Lebanon, has said Senate Bill 516 would streamline the development process. The bill passed the House 87-4 and the Senate 41-0.
Braun is taking a closer look at the IEDC after his office found potential “impropriety” between the agency and spun-off venture capital firm Elevate Ventures. In the last few weeks, he’s frozen certain funds and is hiring an outside firm to do a forensic audit of the entire agency’s financials.
However, criticism has been building for years over whether the IEDC, which receives hundreds of millions in tax dollars each year, has been transparent and fiscally responsible enough. Questions were largely spurred by the state’s large land purchases and proposed water pipeline to support its massive LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon. (LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace.)
Under the legislation, if the IEDC wants to purchase more than 100 acres of land in a county, it must notify local government and the State Budget Committee at least 30 days before the deal closes.
For each innovation development district in the state, the IEDC and involved local governments would be required to produce an annual report detailing the district’s tax-increment financing plan. Innovation development districts allow the state to capture state and local revenue to fund improvements and incentives at the sites. The state currently has two sites under the designation: the SK Hynix site in West Lafayette and Eli Lilly and Co.’s 600 acres in the LEAP District.
New office
The bill also will create the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which is one of the agenda items Braun sought to rework the state’s economic development strategy.
Braun and members of his administration have said the new office will consolidate several programs currently overseen by the IEDC and act as a more accessible touch point for entrepreneurs. It’s not yet determined what programs will be placed under the office’s umbrella.
The move is part of his strategy to focus state economic development efforts on growing new and existing small businesses instead of pursuing major investment from out-of-state companies.
Commerce officials will launch the office in the coming months with a $1 million per year allotment in the state budget. The office will be separate from the IEDC and under the direction of Secretary of Commerce David Adams.
The new office will oversee certified technology parks instead of the IEDC. The state has more than 20 such parks, including the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette and WestGate@Crane Technology Park in Odon.
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PRF is has awarded itself hundreds of millons of dollars in technology awards and professional services.
Zero bids.
The Indiana Century 21 fund used to be called ELEVATE FOUNDRY FUND.
The Purdue Discovery Park under PRF is at Mitch Daniels Ave and Foundry 101.
In that innovation program, these Battery Innovation/ESN/9-12 LLC, Indy Innovation LLC, etc etc crooks, steal the grants and spin off their own companies. That group funded Wejo, the ilegal GM data trader sold to Jacobs, now running trials in the Indianapolis and LEAP.
This has happened before and it was called Vision Fleet, the Electric Freedom Fleet.
This is Vision Fleet part 2: the Hydrogen fleet, awarded to Andretti and themselves, as usual zero bids.
These crooks are killing the real innovation.
In 2023 an employee from Andretti UK called me at home to tell me that if I wanted to do business in Indiana I needed to sponsor Andretti. The brtitish sales guy told me that since the state of Indiana cannot sponsor a Formula One team the battery innovation center – sponsors of Andretti – came up with an innovative way to pay for Formula One, using sustainability grants via formula E partners, because those sustainability grants were UNLIMITED in Indiana, said the Andretti crook.
The Purdue Discovery Park is a JV between Michael Browning and PRF.
Michael Browning is the disgraced Chairman of Duke, quietly fired for self-dealing with this group at the Purdue Discovery Park.
“Duke’s lack of independent board leadership may be exacerbated by the fact that “Independent”
Lead Director, Michael Browning, is Duke’s longest tenured director. Duke’s corporate
governance principles currently state that independent directors normally retire the earlier of age
70 or 15 years of service. Browning is 74 and haswith 30 years of service on the boards of Duke
and its predecessor companies. Further, Mr. Browning is the chair of Browning Investments
LLC, which is the “master planning partner” for developable land within the Purdue Research
Foundation’s Discovery Park District in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 2019, Duke leased
nondevelopable land within the Discovery Park District to build a solar power plant. Duke has
represented that Browning Investments LLC was not involved with and did not profit from
Duke’s solar power plant project in the Discovery Park District.
Further compromising Browning’s independence are previously undisclosed related-party
transactions. Duke built a solar plant in Purdue Research Foundation’s (PRF) Discovery Park
District, a large development in Indiana for which Browning Investments LLC is PRF’s “master
planning partner,” responsible for developing, constructing, financing, and owning certain
projects”
https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/cf-noaction/14a-8/2021/nyccduke010821-14a8.pdf
https://x.com/BBessolo/status/1915604674666717484
This is LEAP:
https://stories.prf.org/hard-tech-corridor/#:~:text=Discovery%20Park%20District%20at%20Purdue%20anchors%20Indiana's%20ambitious%20Hard%2DTech%20Corridor,-July%201%2C%202024&text=The%20persistent%20pursuit%20of%20the,potential%20for%20research%20and%20business.
The $25M see stolen:
Chris LaMothe, Chief Executive Officer of Elevate Ventures shared that Elevate Ventures has experienced larger than normal returns in the investments they have made across 15 funds over a 10-year period. Given the growing maturity of the Indiana investment marketplace, it makes sense to take some of the return dollars and invest them in companies that have moved beyond Elevate’s investment purview. This would include firms that are series B or series C that take larger investments, many of which are made by out of state firms. There is an opportunity in Indiana to continue to invest in these firms, which will hopefully keep them and their associated jobs in Indiana. It was recommended to the Entrepreneurship Committee to develop a new fund that would be run by Elevate Ventures which would invest in those later stage companies and hopefully keep them in Indiana as a catalyst to attract other investments. Ms. Marcuccilli moved for recommendation to the full board to allocate $25 million towards this growth venture initiative for approval by the IEDC Board of Directors. The motion was seconded and then unanimously approved by roll call vote. David Roberts, Senior Vice President & Chief Innovation Officer of the Corporation, presented an update on other IEDC innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, including the Indy Automatous Challenge as well as opportunities to pursue more federal funding through the Economic Development Agency. Chair Thompson thanked the Committee and adjourned the meeting.
https://secure.in.gov/apps/iedc/transparencyportal/additionalpublicinfo/view/30608d7be392
Nov 2021: Purdue Discovery Park Master Developer disgraced Duke former chairman Michael Browning and Davids Roberts forms a SPAC called Project Energy Reimagined Acquisition Company and buys a Palantir/GM SPAC called Wejo, an Andretti Apollo SPAC 1 Fund, L.P indirect investment company that sells driver’s data to insurance companies, until the Federal Trade Commission shuts it down and penalizes GM while Andretti leaves Andretti and TWG takes over GM F1.
70% of Wejo was funneled back to GM.
“Avalanche Andretti Formula E and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s New Partnership Puts Indiana on a Global Stage.
Indiana supports the future of energy and energy storage through partnerships like the Battery Innovation Center (BIC).”
https://andrettiglobal.com/news/2022/04/avalanche-andretti-formula-e-and-the-indiana-economic-development-corporations-new-partnership-puts-indiana-on-a-global-stage/
TWG (formerly Andretti) Global and Palantir just announced a 1-year-old Joint Venture.
THIS IS CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA ON WHEELS
https://www.globest.com/2016/06/16/purdue-and-browning-launch-20-year-plan/