Now that the dust has started to settle on Elanco’s momentous decision to leave Greenfield and build a new world headquarters near downtown Indianapolis, local leaders will begin to ponder where the community goes from here.
To be sure, last week’s announcement was a blow to civic pride. Greenfield has been home to one of the fastest-growing animal science companies in the world, and Elanco’s presence here was certainly a resume booster for the community.
Its loss when the moving trucks pull away two or three years from now will be keenly felt, but probably more sentimentally than anything else. The employees we know are not likely to pick up and move just because their employer changed addresses 20 miles away.
They’ll still be here, helping out in 4-H, serving on community boards and volunteering when they can. Their kids will still go to school here.
The people here who are most knowledgeable about big changes like this are — publicly, at least — remaining upbeat. They are choosing to accentuate the positive rather than lament the loss. In setback they see opportunity, and they are right.
Hancock County already is in the midst of a transformation. Because of its easy interstate access and plentiful undeveloped land in almost every direction, it is becoming a logistics hub. Most of the new jobs being created here are in some way associated with moving products from one place to another. In a post-COVID world in which commerce comes to the doorstep, that sector’s future seems rock-solid.
Elanco’s departure perhaps will accelerate our reckoning with the vast implications of that in terms of education, family income and housing in our communities. Those conversations need to intensify.
The company will leave behind a tremendous asset: a campus of 32 acres with six buildings and about 250,000 square feet of space. The oldest building opened only in 2010. It is mere yards from an interstate exit, and driving to and from anywhere from there is a breeze. As Randy Sorrell, executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, noted, it will be attractive to any number of businesses. There’s no reason not to think a number of smaller businesses eventually can occupy that space, bringing more diversity to the lineup of companies in the city’s Progress Park and inoculating the city against a future Elanco-size pullout.
Elanco took pains to say it will assist in “backfilling” the space as the countdown to moving day begins. What that process looks like is anyone’s guess, but we’ll take their word for it.
Elanco’s departure will close an era that encompasses more than a century in Greenfield and Hancock County. It’s hard to imagine the community without Eli Lilly or its one-time subsidiary. But it’s time to start getting used to the idea.
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