WARSAW  — A ribbon cutting is set for July 15 at the Warsaw Certified Technology Park. The event will be held at 1:30 p.m. at 1445 Polk Drive, Warsaw.

The park, consisting of 95 acres, is north of the US 30 and Silveus Crossing intersection, behind Ivy Tech Community College. Zoned industrial, the new park is near Medtronic and Winona PVD. The ribbon cutting will open the first phase of the $3 million park.

A 62,500 square-foot shell building was recently completed and has already become a show piece. Phase two of the project – consisting of connection to the areas bike/pedestrian trail and widening of a bridge on CR 300N – is expected to begin in 2016. There is already interest in the property.

This is another tool for the orthopedic capital of the world, to add to its economic development portfolio. The city is the home to several of the largest companies headquartered here:  Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., and Johnson & Johnson, owned by DePuy Synthes Company.

The foundation for the park was laid by the growth of Winona PVD and it will provide space for businesses seeking to expand or relocate.

Warsaw draws from a large labor pool and is a regional employment center serving the counties of Marshall, Fulton, St. Joseph, Wabash, Whitley, Allen, Noble and Elkhart counties. Average wage scales range from $9 to $11 per hour for assembly and lower skilled positions to $15 to $19 per hour for skilled production workers, including experienced machine operators.

The city is part of a county-wide community consortium, “Kosciusko Kickstart Your Career,” consisting of service providers and employers to develop programs to recruit entry level employees into the manufacturing field and train them for basic certifications to enter manufacturing employment and to provide employers with trainable and promotable employees. The consortium is committed to creating a pipeline of manufacturing talent.