Vera Bradley Expands

 

GDA Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 6/7/2011 10:54:46 AM

Fort Wayne, IN - Vera Bradley will spend $1.17 million on an expansion and create 101 clerical and management jobs, according to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette and News Sentinel.

The fashion accessories manufacturer filed paperwork seeking a tax abatement on property it plans to lease from Great Dane Realty, which is also owned by Vera Bradley co-founder Barbara Bradley Baekgaard. The abatement would save about $98,000 in taxes over 10 years on equipment and improvements.

In April, Vera Bradley announced plans to create a design center in a 39,200-square-feet building across the street from the company's distribution center. The building formerly housed Baekgaard Ltd. Baekgaard Ltd., founded by Peer Baekgaard, late husband of Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, closed in January.

The new design center will consolidate the company's creative departments and photo studio, and will receive $1 million in improvements and another $175,000 in equipment, including computers and racks.

Vera Bradley has already started renovations, which officials expect to be completed by the end of the summer. Vera Bradley's 88-member design team will move into its new home, which cost $4 million to construct in 2007, by September.

"Vera Bradley hired more than 220 employees in Northeast Indiana in the last year," says Julie North, vice president of human resources. "Currently, we are at capacity in the four buildings we occupy, so the addition of this building, which is next door to our Roanoke Distribution Center, is a great fit."