Mayor: Panacea announcement ‘exciting’ for Noblesville
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — The mayor of Noblesville says Wednesday’s announcement that India-based Panacea Medical Technologies Inc. will set up operations in the Hamilton County city is just the beginning of things to come.
The medical tech company plans to invest nearly $12 million to establish its North American headquarters in Noblesville and create up to 65 jobs by the end of 2023. Mayor Chris Jensen says Panacea chose Noblesville over several other cities in Indiana and the Midwest.
In an interview with “Inside INdiana Business,” Jensen said his administration last fall outlined medical technology companies as a target for Noblesville.
“We have a corporate campus on the east side of the city that has several already medical diagnostic companies and we feel like our workforce here not only in Hamilton County and in Noblesville but really in central Indiana, really supports that industry very, very well,” Jensen said. “We have the right workforce, the right skills and a right area to target those wages and target those types of companies here to the central Indiana market.”
Jensen credits Gov. Eric Holcomb’s trip to India last October with helping to bring Panacea to central Indiana. He says Noblesville wants to play a role in the governor’s theme of “taking Indiana to the world and bringing the world to Indiana.”
“A $12 million investment on such high-paying, high-wage, high-skill jobs is exactly what our city needs to set itself forward for success going forward and really what the Indy metro region needs as well. It’s incredibly exciting but we are just getting started.”
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. says Panacea aims to have the facility operational by 2021. The company plans to begin hiring for a variety of positions, such as marketing, sales, engineering, operations, manufacturing and service at the beginning of that year.
Jensen says as Panacea brings operations to central Indiana, the city is continuing to focus on talent attraction efforts.
“So much of that talent attraction conversation revolves around quality of place. We know we have a strong city. We have a vibrant city. We have a historic downtown. We have (the) White River right flowing throughout downtown. So (we’re) making sure that we have the amenities that people are looking for when they look for a community, that we have the housing stock available for those people. So we’re going to be investing in key areas like that going forward.”
He says the city also needs to have a talent development strategy in place to be able to skill up current and future members of the workforce.