Reprinted with permission from the Vincennes Sun-Commercial newspaper

March 16, 2022

Updated March 18, 2022

BICKNELL — City officials on Monday approved their first-ever tax abatement to a local business that has now doubled its footprint.

Mayor Thomas Estabrook said the city council gave final approval to a 10-year tax abatement for Basiloid Diversified Products, a manufacturer of fork lift attachments located in the city’s Industrial Park on Russell Drive.

The company, which first opened in Bicknell two years ago, has added on in recent months, doubling its size. It will now, too, nearly double the number of jobs available, from 18 now to 34 later.

“Our ability to add more manufacturing space and offices in the Bicknell Industrial Park will help us respond to increased demand,” said Rob French, owner of Basiloid. “I am pleased for what this expansion means for both the company, as well as the Bicknell area.”

The company plans to invest more than $1.6 million to upgrade and expand its facility at 7382 Russell Drive, increasing its current production space while gaining additional administrative offices, according to a press release issued Tuesday by Knox County Indiana Economic Development.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp., too, committed an investment of up to $100,000 in the form of incentive-based tax credits.

These tax credits are performance-based, meaning the company is eligible to claim incentives once additional workers are hired, the press release states.

City officials here began their partnership with Basiloid in the fall of 2020 when the Board of Works agreed to sell to the business three acres in the Industrial Park.

It was actually land underneath a building previously occupied by KCARC. Basiloid bought the building but needed the ground on which to expand.

Before that, Basiloid was based in Elnora, but the facility there sustained damage in a fire in 2019.