Press Release

U.S. Department of Commerce Invests $4 Million to Establish Workforce Training Facility Near Wabash County, Indiana, Opportunity Zone

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $4 million grant to Wabash County, Indiana, to expand the Heartland Career Center to provide adult career training in healthcare and advanced manufacturing. The EDA grant, to be located near a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Opportunity Zone, will be matched with $1 million in local funds and is expected to help create or retain nearly 150 jobs, and generate $600,000 in private investment.

“The Trump Administration is committed to training workers in the critical skills America’s growing healthcare and advanced manufacturing industries need,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “This new facility will be a hub for adult education in the Wabash County region, and the project’s location near an Opportunity Zone will drive private investment to the community.”

“This EDA grant will construct the Heartland Career Center Workforce Development Center in a community hit hard by flooding in spring 2018,” said Dana Gartzke, Performing the Delegated Duties of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “The center will provide skilled employees local businesses demand and the project’s location near an Opportunity Zone will help to spur additional investment to diversify the local economy.”

The funding announced today will catalyze private investment in a nearby Opportunity Zone. Created by President Donald J. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Opportunity Zones are spurring economic development in economically-distressed communities nationwide. In June 2019, EDA added Opportunity Zones as an Investment Priority, which increases the number of catalytic Opportunity Zone-related projects that EDA can fund to fuel greater public investment in these areas. To learn more about the Commerce Department’s work in Opportunity Zones, please visit EDA’s Opportunity Zones webpage. To learn more about the Opportunity Zone program, see the Opportunity Now resources webpage. To learn more about Opportunity Zone best practices, see the recently released White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council Report (PDF) to President Trump.

This project is funded by the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019 (Pub. L. 116-20) (PDF), which provided EDA with $600 million in additional Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) Program (PDF) Program funds for disaster relief and recovery for areas affected by Hurricanes Florence, Michael, and Lane, Typhoons Yutu and Mangkhut, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and other major natural disasters occurring in calendar year 2018, and tornadoes and floods occurring in calendar year 2019, under the Robert T. Stafford Act. Please visit EDA’s Disaster Supplemental webpage for more information.

About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation's regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.