If Notre Dame's commercialization bandwidth is already committed to Colfax Corner through 2028, what are we doing now to get Plymouth's Innovation District positioned before that window closes?

Watch for Plymouth Common Council action on the annexation and rezoning petitions, then any application for state Innovation Development District designation, since that is the mechanism that would put Plymouth into the same funding stream South Bend already captured.

With NIPSCO's idle Schahfer units costing $174,000 a day and FERC Docket EL2636 still undecided, have we modeled what full cost recovery does to our industrial rate next year?

NIPSCO is asking FERC to spread Schahfer costs across its entire 11-state MISO footprint, with total retention costs projected above $1 billion through 2027, so the rate pressure is coming regardless of how the pending court cases resolve.

As tariff-driven closures push production out of Michigan and Iowa, are we positioned to pick up relocating work the way Grand Design RV captured Winnebago's Iowa production?

Winnebago's own WARN filings confirm 381 Iowa layoffs tied to consolidating production in Middlebury, Indiana, so this relocation is already happening, and the plants ready to bid on that freed-up work now are the ones that will land it.

Can we compete for skilled labor against Nucor's new wage floor in Crawfordsville?

Nucor's expanded facility is targeting an average wage near $87,500, roughly 150% above the Montgomery County median, so any plant drawing from that same regional labor pool should expect upward wage pressure starting now.

Manufacturing News TEG Daily

October 12, 2026 · Marshall · Jasper · Posey · Montgomery · NIPSCO

NIPSCO's Schahfer Coal Plant Costs Indiana Manufacturers $174,000 a Day While Plymouth Chases Innovation Dollars and Nucor Expands

NIPSCO's Schahfer coal plant costs Indiana manufacturers $174,000 a day as FERC weighs cost recovery, plus Plymouth, tariffs, and Nucor's Crawfordsville bet.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

NIPSCO's Schahfer coal units are costing Indiana ratepayers $174,000 a day in retention costs, money already flowing into industrial bills while federal regulators have not yet ruled on who ultimately pays. In Plymouth, ITAMCO is working against a funding and attention clock to get an innovation district in front of Notre Dame before Colfax Corner locks up the university's commercialization capacity. Tariff-driven factory closures in Michigan and Iowa are pushing production toward Indiana, and Nucor is putting $105 million into its Crawfordsville tower plant with a wage floor that will pull on the local labor market.

01Marshall

ITAMCO's Plymouth Innovation Bid Faces a Notre Dame Clock Colfax Corner Already Started

Indiana Tool & Manufacturing Co., the Plymouth gear and precision-machining manufacturer founded in 1955, announced Oct. 10 that it will petition the City of Plymouth to annex its Michigan Road headquarters and rezone the site, the first step toward an adjacent Indiana Innovation Center and District built around advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and tech commercialization. President Gary Neidig said the goal is to connect Plymouth and Marshall County to the University of Notre Dame. Mayor Robert Listenberger and Council President Don Ecker Jr. both endorsed the petitions.

Impact: ITAMCO is entering a race for Notre Dame's finite commercialization bandwidth against a much better-capitalized rival: Colfax Corner in South Bend, a 202,000-sq.-ft. hub backed by a $30 million Lilly Endowment grant that broke ground just weeks before this announcement and has Notre Dame's iNDustry Labs committed through at least 2028. Indiana's Innovation Development District statute (IC 36-7-32.5) lets South Bend capture incremental tax revenue for up to 30 years to fund its district, meaning Plymouth is racing a financing and attention clock simultaneously, not just a zoning process.
Watch: Plymouth Common Council action on the annexation and rezoning petitions, and any subsequent application for state Innovation Development District designation.
For the huddle: If Notre Dame's commercialization capacity is already committed to Colfax Corner through 2028, what can we do now to get Plymouth's district into the queue before that window closes?

SourcesIndiana Tool & Manufacturing Co. unveils vision for Indiana Innovation Center and District in Plymouth (giant.fm)

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02Jasper · Posey

NIPSCO's Schahfer Coal Plant Costs Indiana Manufacturers as Mrvan Targets DOE Lifeline Orders

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan introduced the Utility Affordability and Transparency Act, which would stop the Department of Energy from using emergency orders to keep NIPSCO's R.M. Schahfer plant and CenterPoint's F.B. Culley plant running past their scheduled retirements, and would require DOE cost estimates plus a transparent line item on customer bills.

Impact: NIPSCO has filed FERC Docket EL2636 seeking to recover Schahfer costs across its entire 11-state MISO footprint, effectively asking ratepayers outside Indiana to help cover an Indiana plant that NIPSCO's own Integrated Resource Plan assumed would be retired, while NIPSCO estimates total Schahfer retention costs will top $1 billion through 2027. The underlying contradiction is stark: Schahfer units were offline for repairs for months this year, meaning the DOE's 'emergency' order was legally requiring a plant to stay operational that was physically incapable of generating power, a detail the D.C. Circuit cited when it struck down a parallel order for Michigan's Campbell plant last month.
Watch: The pending D.C. Circuit rulings on the Schahfer and Culley orders, and FERC's cost-allocation decision in Docket EL2636.
For the huddle: If FERC approves full interstate cost recovery in Docket EL2636, have we modeled what that does to our industrial rate next year regardless of how the court cases resolve?

SourcesLifelines for coal plants cost millions. New legislation wants them to end (aol.com)

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03Statewide

Tariff-Driven Layoffs in Michigan and Iowa Could Become Indiana's Gain

A century-old clockmaker in Zeeland, Michigan, Howard Miller, closed its factory and laid off nearly 200 workers after tariffs raised the cost of overseas parts it depended on, and similar backlash is building in competitive House races across Michigan, Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The White House points to rising factory-construction employment, though U.S. manufacturing still employs fewer people than it did in January 2025. For Indiana, the same pressure cuts the other way.

Impact: The same tariff-driven contraction hitting Iowa is redrawing the Midwest manufacturing map: Winnebago's WARN filings show 381 Iowa layoffs tied to a decision to consolidate towable RV production at Grand Design RV's Middlebury, Indiana campus, meaning Indiana is a direct beneficiary of production shifting out of harder-hit states even as the national tariff narrative sours politically. There's also an intra-party fracture worth watching: Kansas Republican Senators Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran have publicly opposed Trump's threatened Bombardier sales ban to protect 1,500 Wichita jobs, showing GOP incumbents defending foreign-made product access while running on a pro-tariff platform. For Indiana manufacturers, this means tariff politics are reshaping where Midwest production lands, not just whether it survives.
Watch: Nov. 3 midterm results in Michigan's 4th District, Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio, and the timeline for Winnebago's production consolidation into Middlebury, Indiana.
For the huddle: As tariff-driven closures hit plants in Michigan and Iowa, are we positioned to pick up relocating production the way Grand Design RV captured Winnebago's shift to Middlebury?

SourcesRepublicans face midterm backlash from factory workers squeezed out of jobs by Trump's tariffs (theridgefieldpress.com)

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04Montgomery

Nucor's $105M Crawfordsville Expansion Pairs With Higher Q3 Guidance

Nucor set third-quarter 2026 earnings guidance of $5.55 to $5.65 per diluted share, above its second-quarter adjusted earnings of $4.84, with results due after market close Oct. 26 and a call the following morning. On Oct. On the 8th, the company revealed plans to expand its Indiana utility-towers plant by $105 million, a move that will create 100 jobs and add over 120,000 square feet of space. The Crawfordsville project is one piece of a $597.5 million Nucor commitment across five Indiana investments, tied to grid-hardening, EV-charging, and renewable interconnection demand.

Impact: This expansion is part of a $597.5 million Nucor commitment across five Indiana investments, making the state a structural anchor for its Towers & Structures growth platform tied to grid-hardening, EV-charging, and renewable interconnection demand, not a one-off facility bet. Fort Wayne-based rival Steel Dynamics guided Q3 EPS to $5.34-$5.38 the same week citing a fabrication backlog nearly 50% above last year, meaning Indiana's two largest steel employers are both betting on infrastructure-linked downstream growth while blast-furnace competitor Cleveland-Cliffs remains squeezed by high coking-coal costs and Stelco tariff exposure.
Watch: Nucor's Q3 earnings release Oct. 26 and conference call Oct. 27, plus the targeted Q1 2027 groundbreaking for the expanded facility.
For the huddle: With Nucor setting an average wage near $87,500 at its expanded Indiana facility, roughly 150% above the county median, are we prepared to compete for skilled labor in that same regional pool?

SourcesNucor guides Q3 earnings as analysts target Nucor stock at USD 276.07 - ad-hoc-news.de (ad-hoc-news.de)

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