place to live, work and play,” pointing to the quality of life amenities that continue to anchor the city, even as it evolves.“We have great schools. We have a safe community, a good fire department. We own all of our own utilities, electric, water, sewer, and storm water. We have our local hospital here. We have good partnerships with our outside utilities like NineStar, and we work well with the county and the HEDC,” he conveys. Those partnerships have become increasingly important as Greenfield experiences steady residential and commercial growth. “We’re the second largest growing county in the state,” the mayor acknowledges.“Growth is going to come our way, and we want to provide positive opportunities for people that would want to move here and start a business.” WELCOMING CRECERA BRANDS One dynamic new addition to Greenfield is a Crecera Brands distribution center, home to Sportsman’s Guide and other direct to consumer catalog brands. COO, Scott Eichstadt expands, “We’ve consolidated three distribution centers into this one new building in Greenfield. We have state of the art automation with our Hai Robotics, pick engine, pick system that we’re excited about bringing into the community. We started the journey early in the year, and by the end of July, we were able to move all the products from the existing distribution centers into this one.” Eichstadt notes that the company began with zero employees at the site and had to build its workforce entirely from the ground up. “We partnered with a local Workforce Agency, and we were able to get team members through there, and we’re growing,” he says.“It’s been a large undertaking, but we’re getting there. We are very excited to be in Greenfield and build that partnership within the community.” What made Greenfield stand out was not just location or infrastructure, but the city itself.“Community was a big aspect of why we moved here,” he continues. “We looked at that growth as a very positive aspect as we grow here, to get a workforce and talented and skilled team members to be able to come in and work here and hit the ground running.” When it comes to workplace design, Crecera Brands has taken an unconventional approach, creating what they term a family and community distribution center. “If you were to take a look at our campus here, it’s a very unique setting,” describes Eichstadt. “That was really one of the appealing aspects of this lot here in Greenfield. I could create this family environment, which is probably very unique to a warehouse, the amenities we have on the outside.” 101 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 07, ISSUE 01 GREENFIELD, IN
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