Going Above & Beyond: The Story of Westfield, Indiana
Having written a number of pieces about regionalism and why it is so important for greater Indianapolis, I want to start explaining why I am so optimistic that the Indianapolis region is positioned to break out from the middle of the pack and definitively become one of the winners in the new economy.
One reason is that there’s just a whole lot of great things happening in communities across the region. Part of what I want to do in Indy Forward is to tell some of the stories about these things and why they are impressive. Indy isn’t actually a small town where we can easily know everything that’s happening, so it’s important to tell the stories to ourselves of what’s happening across the region and why these things are significant.
I want to start up in Westfield, which is one of the many suburban cities and towns that are making big moves for the future. Among cities or towns with a population of at least 5,000 in 2010, Westfield has been the second fastest growing in the state, up over 37%. Another 11,000 people now call Westfield home. That’s a good sized Indiana town in its own right, about the same as the whole population of Madison or Greencastle.
Westfield was going to grow no matter what it did. As the next town out on the fast growing North Side, developers were going to show up proposing new housing and retail. Westfield could have simply taken what the market gave it, and still looked like a well-performing city.
But Westfield decided to go beyond. The big thing everyone knows that it did was build Grand Park, arguably the country’s premier youth sports complex. This is notable for a few reasons. Westfield did something important. They looked around the region and asked what they could build that would be unique in the region, something that would be additive for the whole region. And they did that, creating a facility that is a major attraction. Millions of visitors come to Grand Park every year, including many who are not from Indiana.
But Grand Park wasn’t just yet another collection of ballfields; it is a truly world class facility. I was blown away when I first visited it. Google the best youth sports complexes in America, and Grand Park is on every list. Even The New York Times talks about Westfield’s success. As with Indy’s original downtown sports business, Westfield helped to create the genre and has inspired many imitators. But despite many communities trying to get into the youth sports business, Grand Park continues to be highly successful and a national leader.
The fact that Westfield didn’t just want Grand Park to be big but to be the best is important. Some of the people coming to tournaments there may never have visited Indianapolis before; this is their first exposure to the region. As with our #1 ranked airport, Grand Park makes a powerful first impression and statement about what Indianapolis is as a city. It helps credentialize our entire region.
There’s more to Westfield as well. Historically, it was a very small town and so had a fairly small downtown. But the city is seeking to dramatically build up that downtown. It’s cutting the Gordian knot of traffic by making a deal with INDOT to improve SR 32. And it’s building Grand Junction Plaza, whose design features unique architecture and looks amazing. It looks to be another first-rate facility in the city, with an amphitheater, ice rink, and more.
These kinds of investments are paying for the city; Westfield is growing like a rocket ship. Its median household income is $93,000 per year. It’s essentially at full employment.
And it’s drawing businesses. Not just content to be a bedroom community of rooftops and retail, Westfield set out to make sure it was also attracting industrial and other businesses as well. For example, Abbott Labs recently announced it was going to invest $37 million dollars and create 450 new jobs by building a facility to make the MitraClip, one of its medical device products. This is good news not just for Westfield, but for the overall Indianapolis life sciences cluster.
Westfield Mayor Andy Cook is a big backer of regional partnerships. As I previously wrote, regionalism can be seen as a type of enlightened self-interest. Westfield is a great example of this in action. Westfield is doing things that benefit the region, but also make it a more successful and attractive community in its own right. It’s trying to be best authentic version of itself as well while helping build up the profile and attractiveness of the entire region. This is the way we all should be thinking to continue to advance the competitiveness of Indy at the national and global level.
