Yamaha Marine Precision Propellers, Inc. began production in March 2021 in the 55,000-square-foot plant at 1887 W. New Road, Greenfield.
Submitted photo
GREENFIELD — Greenfield City Council members unanimously approved a 10-year tax abatement for Yamaha Marine Precision Propellers at the council’s April 26 meeting, as the company continues to eye future expansion in the city.
The vote came after a relatively quiet public hearing at the start of the meeting, at which one resident voiced his opinion that the ongoing tax breaks should be denied.
Yamaha plans to triple the size of its propeller manufacturing plant and more than double its workforce, just two years after starting production in a 55,000-square-foot plant at 1887 W. New Road in March 2021.
The abatement will allow the company to enter into its second phase of a potential four- or five-phase development as it moves toward moving all its propeller production from the east side of Indianapolis to Greenfield.
The city council approved the 10-year tax abatement for improvements associated with the expansion, which has been estimated at over $16 million in real property and roughly $5 million in machinery and equipment.
City attorney Gregg Morelock said the abatement and ongoing expansion will pay off big future dividends for Greenfield in regard to job opportunities and future tax revenue.
“Government takes into account the forever view on things, and in the long run this is going to gain more revenue than it would have if left undeveloped,” said the attorney.
“At the end of 10 years we’ll have a lot more than we would have had leaving (the expansion area) bare ground. We’re always excited about having new assessed value, and we hope to see (Yamaha) continue to grow,” he said.
The 10-year tax abatement includes deductions from the assessed values of the improvements by 100% in the first year of the abatement period before diminishing by 10 percentage points over the years that follow until the taxes are fully phased in.
Yamaha’s Greenfield plant is home to the first part of the company’s propeller production process, which includes assembling and casting the propellers which are then sent to a Marion County facility where they are ground, finished and boxed.
The company wants to move the rest of its Marion County operations to Greenfield, which general manager Batuhan Ak said would bring more robotics and automation as well as skilled employees needed to oversee them.
Ak said Yamaha plans to grow its facility by 110,000 square feet over the next two years, which would bring about 101 more jobs paying roughly $25.29 an hour by the end of 2025. The company employed about 90 people as of mid-April.
