South-Central Indiana Is Now on the National Semiconductor Map. Here’s What That Means

Twenty years ago, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane came close to being shut down entirely. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process was a genuine threat, and the base was forced to cut nearly 700 jobs — about 15 percent of its workforce at the time.

What happened after that is one of the more quietly significant economic stories in Indiana. Instead of shrinking into irrelevance, Crane rebuilt around microelectronics, electronic warfare, and precision technology. It became one of three entities nationally chosen to lead the Microelectronics Commons program, a Department of Defense initiative to build regional innovation hubs across the country. And in 2022, Indiana became one of seven states to land a hub in the first round of CHIPS and Science Act funding.

Most people in Bloomington and Bedford don’t fully know this story yet. They probably should.

What the CHIPS Act Hub Means for This Region

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 was built around a specific problem. The United States had become dangerously dependent on foreign-made semiconductors, and the pandemic made that vulnerability impossible to ignore. The law created funding to rebuild American semiconductor research and manufacturing, and the Microelectronics Commons program was one of its main tools for doing that — a network of regional hubs connecting military bases, universities, and private companies.

Crane got a hub. That’s not a small thing. It means south-central Indiana is now part of a federally coordinated national strategy to re-shore semiconductor production and research. The other entities in the Microelectronics Commons network are research institutions and defense labs. Crane earned its place in that network based on two decades of work in trusted microelectronics after nearly being closed.

Angela Lewis, technical director at NSWC Crane, described the 2005 BRAC process as “truly a wake-up call.” The response to that wake-up call is what put this region on the national semiconductor map.

WestGate One: Four Semiconductor Companies, $300 Million, 549 Jobs

In November 2022, Indiana broke ground on WestGate One — a new 10-acre microelectronics campus inside WestGate@Crane Technology Park in Odon. The development secured commitments from four semiconductor companies before the first shovel hit the ground.

NHanced Semiconductors anchors the campus, operating a 30,000-square-foot advanced packaging facility that opened in January 2024. Everspin Technologies, a publicly traded Arizona company, established a fabrication and R&D site at WestGate One to expand production of Magnetoresistive RAM — a specialized memory technology critical to next-generation defense applications. Trusted Semiconductor Solutions committed more than $34 million to design and deliver integrated circuits and radiation-hardened products for military, defense, space, and industrial markets. Reliable MicroSystems, which provides radiation effects modeling for large defense contractors, expanded to Indiana and has already seen more than 50 percent employment growth at the park.

Together those four companies committed $300 million in investment and plan to create 549 specialized, high-wage jobs. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation tied state incentives to the project. Daviess County has since authorized the Uplands Science and Technology Foundation to lead further real estate development on county-owned land near the park, signaling that the build-out is not finished.

Indiana University’s Role: $111 Million and a New Kind of Degree

Indiana University’s connection to this story is direct and documented. IU committed $111 million to microelectronics and nanotechnology — one of the largest single investments by a U.S. research university into semiconductor manufacturing — with a specific collaboration built around NSWC Crane.

The investment created IU CREATE, the Center for Reliable and Trusted Electronics, which leads research on radiation-hardened technologies. That center builds on an earlier $5 million grant from NSWC Crane to IU’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering for a workforce program focused on building and testing microelectronics in extreme environments. IU also added new degree programs in nanofabrication and microelectronics at a cost of $13.5 million, and invested in nanofabrication facilities to support both IU programs and the IU-NSWC Crane partnership.

The practical result of all this: IU is now producing graduates specifically trained for the kinds of positions opening up at WestGate@Crane and at the contractors supporting Crane’s mission. Bloomington is not just a bedroom community for the defense cluster 35 miles away. It’s actively training the workforce that cluster needs.

The Microelectronics Training Hub: September 2025

On September 29, 2025, the Indiana Uplands Microelectronics Training Hub opened at WestGate@Crane Technology Park. The hub was designed specifically to align training opportunities with the workforce needs of the defense and industry partners already operating at the park. It’s not a university program or a government initiative in isolation — it’s a facility built to close the gap between the jobs that exist right now and the workers who can fill them.

That kind of infrastructure — a training hub sitting inside the technology park itself, connected to the companies and to Crane — is a signal that the build-out here is long-term. Facilities like that don’t get built for short-term projects. They get built when the people investing in them believe the work will be here for decades.

What This Means If You’re Thinking About This Area

The story of Crane and WestGate is relevant to the real estate conversation in a specific way. The jobs coming into this region are not manufacturing jobs or service jobs. They are engineering, research, program management, and specialized technical positions paying well above regional averages. The IEDC has tied incentives to positions in the broader Crane corridor averaging $80,000 or more annually.

People taking those positions are buyers, not renters. They’re coming from other states, often from higher-cost markets, and they are looking at what south-central Indiana offers with fresh eyes. What they find — the housing costs, the terrain, the access to IU’s cultural infrastructure, the state parks — tends to be a genuine surprise compared to what they left behind.

If you want more context on what the defense side of this picture looked like before the semiconductor story took shape, the piece I wrote on

Crane Naval Base and the defense boom reshaping southern Indiana real estate covers the employment and relocation side in more detail. For buyers coming from out of state, moving to Bloomington Indiana as a relocating buyer covers what out-of-state buyers consistently run into when they start the process. And for those with an eye on Lawrence County, buying a home in Bedford Indiana near Bloomington walks through what that market looks like right now.

I’ve worked this market for over 20 years. The Crane corridor has always been part of the economic foundation here. What’s new is the scale, the national recognition, and the fact that it’s now pulling in a different kind of worker than this region has historically attracted. That matters for buyers, sellers, and anyone trying to understand where this market is heading.

Lesa Miller, Broker | REALTOR®
Lesa Miller Real Estate | RE/MAX Acclaimed Properties
Serving Bloomington, Bedford and the Surrounding Indiana Communities
(812) 360-3863 | [email protected]https://LesaMillerRealEstate.com