the live team is flying in they want to talk about live in Westfield I'm like live no way back to your advice for 22-year-olds like the sky literally is the limit you just have to go out there and make it happen Westfield is actually the sixth fastest growing city in America what is a must attend event in Westfield from South bin to Evansville and everywhere in between this is get in the show focused on the hooer state and the incredible stories happening here today I'm Nate spangle founder of git Indiana and I will be your host for today's conversation before we get into it just
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clustertruck.com orderorder now and use code Indie n Dy at checkout for 20% off orders of $25 or more trust me your stomach's going to thank you reminder that code is Indie i n Dy now let's get into the episode today I'm joined by Mayor Scott Willis a decorated US Marine Colonel successful businessman and Westfield resident of nearly two decades elected in November of 2023 as the mayor of Westfield he focuses on strategic growth growth fiscal transparency and Community engagement to shape Westfield's bright future his leadership extends Beyond City Hall as he has served on the Westfield city council and various local boards always prioritizing the
city's small town charm today we're going to be talking about the explosive growth of Westfield over the past two decades plus we're going to talk about how they secured live golf and what you need to expect for this incredible golf tournament that's coming to Westfield and just what's on the docket as we look forward for the future of Westfield mayor Willis welcome to get in great thank you for having me I really appreciate it man I am excited about this one for anyone that doesn't know Westfield is a subb just north of caramel North of Indianapolis just north of carel it has seen if you've
ever driven the the 31 North you you're going to South Bender or anywhere like that you have seen over the past two decades or so more and more growth to the suburb of Westfield and it's just been incredible to see and it's awesome to uh to have the mayor in in the seat on the show today we appreciate yeah Westfield is actually the sixth fastest growing city in America and what might even be more eye popping is we're the only city in the midwest to show up on the top 100 list so what's happening in Westfield is truly a unicorn in the midwest the only
city in Indiana to show up in the top 100 of fastest scoring cities Midwest no way not only Indiana but the Midwest we're the only city to show up in the top and what do they do they measure that with from census to census C data okay so over the past two census like how far how much has Westfield grown you know that's a great question I'm not 100% sure but I can tell you over the last probably decade uh we grew 87% um now we've seen a little bit of a dip here recently only because it's easy to go from it's not easy but
to go from 10 to 20,000 is one thing to go 20 to 40,000 is another so we're seeing a little bit of slow in the growth but we're still in the 30 40% range of growth every year what was the first big Domino that kind of led to this growth of Westfield you know Grand Park probably had a huge part in the growth that we're seeing now it's not everything I I when people ask me why is Westfield growing it's because of our school district um we have a nationally ranked School District it's one of the best in the state of Indiana and when families
are looking for communities to plant their flag in uh Westfield comes up on any list when you're looking at top schools in Indiana so I think that's been a driver but gr Park put us on the map I was going to say I feel like was that 10 or 15 10 years ago maybe 2012 was when Grand Park was approved and started the Event Center was built in 2018 so about every 10 years we're changing something at that Park and we just announced last night a major transformation of the park that's going to take us to that next level so oh heck yeah well I
know that grand Park's also hosted some crazy cool events like besides just like baseball and besides soccer and softball all those S things like I think I remember did the bar stool nd500 tailgate was that it was that Grand Park like that's a wild like imagine like you know you're getting ready for n500 and you're going north to Westfield to host the giant bar stool pre- party tail right it was really funny to see our our former mayor there he was still mayor at the time in his mid 70s and he I'm not sure he knew what he was walking into um might have been
the biggest party in the history of Westfield yeah honestly that's that's hilarious I love that so so when you're thinking about this rapid growth and as you take over what are some of the challenges that you face with the city as it goes through these periods of rapid growth well one it's keeping our tax rate level um because when you see this rapid growth it puts a huge burden on the taxpayer especially with infrastructure building the roads keeping up with the congestion that's now building in our community home values are skyrocketing which is a great thing right you don't want to live in a community
where your values are going down but the problem is because of that high demand and not a lot of Supply out there we're seeing property taxes going up every year from assessed values increasing so that's that's been a challenge as well but then also balancing it with the school district uh it is our key driver uh of our community I believe but when you have the rapid growth it puts a real burden on the schools to keep up and like the I'm I'm sure there are the Westfield traditionalists that remember back when it was still west of a field and there was still you know
like all that stuff so do you get push back then from people that on one side we want to grow and become a thriving obviously you want growth and you know more people coming in that want to be a part of this community but on the other side the identity of ew it was a small town and it's it's still smaller but it's it's definitely growing you know what's the population now we think we're getting ready to do a special sensus we think we're close to 60,000 holy and in 2010 20 like what was it before when I moved here in 2004 it was around
10,000 people 50,000 over 20 years so I obviously then there are probably people that have lived in Westfield for 50 years plus or whatever that remember the 10,000 Days how do you keep the culture and the identity of a town and and what initiatives do you guys have there yeah that's a real challenge cuz you know you have the older population who remembers it when it was just two or three thousand people back in uh the 90s uh and any kind of change is not good in their mind you know buildings go down they have memories of those of those buildings or experiences in those
buildings and they're not happy that things are changing um so it's been a real challenge keeping you know folks The Originals in our community happy but also continue to grow and arrive I mean if you're not a growing city you're a dying City in my opinion so we we definitely don't want to be stagnant but we have to be sensitive to to what we are who we are and where we were at one time um I brought my Deputy Mayor I brought her on staff when I was elected her family was one of the original settlers of Westfield she's fifth generation Shamrock um so I
think surrounding yourself with people who know the history of Westfield and we're trying to honor that as we grow we're preserving old buildings um we're creating historic district for those older buildings and we're trying to put programs in place so that people don't forget the history of who we are um Westfield's probably best known for the Underground Railroad um so we're doing some things and some with this new development we're getting ready to announce it's going to have a park that's going to memorialize the Underground Railroad because it ran right through that area um so it's little things like that that you can do to
remember your history wait okay so can can we do you know any like do you have some details about how Westfield was uh involved with the Underground Railroad I do it was uh Westfield um the Lindley f the Lindley Farm is you're heading is that the the cabin that's up by Sheridan too no this is as you're heading north towards uh chadam and when you see chadam on the left hand side there on US31 you'll see a a barn that's been renovated an old farmhouse in the woods that's the Linley farm that was considered the last great hope if you could get to the Linley
Farm as a slave the likelihood of you getting freedom in Canada was very very high that used to be a swamp land and so the Lindley family was take the slaves and they would hide them in the swamp and when Head Hunters would come in to try to to collect the slaves they would get bogged down they' get lost in the swamp and it became very well known don't bother going in there you're not going to find what you're looking for and you're just going to lose everything you have um so if you could get to the Lindley farm that was is that a wedding
venue now it is the barn was renovated as a wedding venue I was I was there two years ago for a wedding I think great ven there a a subtle plug out there it's a great wedding venue just north of uh Northwest like on 31 there Northern Edge right before you get to State row 38 wow that's crazy the Lindley Farms wow and there was a lot of houses at one time that had trap doors or hidden rooms where the the Quakers would store the slaves or hide the slaves from house to house as they progress towards the Lindley Farm um many of those buildings
unfortunately been teared down but we still have a few of those it was called the last great hope the last great hope that is so these are the fun things I get to learn about on the got some really neat history in Westfield you know was a small Quaker Town for for over a century but it's got some neat history where did you when did you get into politics and know that you wanted to be involved in the local community that's a great question because I I growing up I never envisioned myself running for office I uh just retired from the Marine Corps about two
or three years ago and as I was nearing the end of my service and I knew uh retirement was on the horizon I I I've always served whether being the military or non for-profits or coaching and I just felt the call that hey I wasn't done serving that there was something else for me to do and the Stars kind of aligned in my life where I could make a run for mayor that's how it happened I kind of just fell into it over time and were you involved in other ways in the community before going to be mayor yeah so I was on the Planning
Commission former mayor cook appointed me to the Planning Commission which deals with zoning of your city I served in that capacity for a few years and then I ran for city council uh I was on Council for one term uh before I ran for mayor and so did you just take a over then like officially in 2025 2024 January 2024 okay so you're about a year in now a year in what's been one year in like the thing that that takes up the most time that you didn't think would from the outside looking in I knew government was very bureaucratic right 30 years in the
Marine Corps You See It Up close um but I didn't realize it was as bad as it was until I got in to the Inner Circle as mayor I've been frustrated by how slow sometimes things go in simple like transferring money from one line item to another money that you have in the bank can take two or three months to get it transferred over and so when you're thinking major projects and trying to pull off some of the Bold stuff we're doing in Westfield right now um it can take eight nine 10 months just to get it to the council so that they can weigh
in and vote on it and that was very shocking to me yeah I I don't know politics probably not for me like the idea two to three like I'm like I think of an idea and I want to go finish it by the end of the day so kudos to you for being able to have the patience there I run a 100 miles an hour and I'm not the most patient guy so it's it's been challenging what were a few of the big pillars that you said hey if I get elected to be mayor I want to make sure we work on X Y and
Z three things first off it was diversifying our tax base 90% of Westfield's Revenue comes from residential property taxes we don't have a lot of businesses it's it's a bedroom community and we have to diversify that if we're going to be a healthy stable City moving forward because if we see another drop in in uh property values like we saw in 2007 and 8 we'll be crippled uh because our budget comes primarily from the residential side second was investing in our infrastructure because of the rapid growth we've out kicked our coverage when it comes to roads and infrastructure and I wanted to see us have
a better plan vision and invest in that infrastructure and then lastly is transparency um I didn't feel like the city it's not they don't they didn't want to be transparent I don't think they knew how to be transparent everything we do in this community we're we're out there talking about it we're not hiding anything and I thought I think we brought a level of transparency to the city that Westfield's not seen heck yeah one year in what's the the change or the thing or the initiative that you've done that you are the most proud of well there's a lot but one that probably the most
excited about is live yeah um it took us a long time to get that to the Finish Line I was only mayor for a few months when we had that opportunity to pursue it and to get an international sporting event and little old Westfield Indiana is pretty amazing when they announced all the destinations only four destinations in the United States the rest were International you know they're saying Chicago Nashville all London all these great cities and at the very bottom it says Westfield Indiana and I can just imagine people looking at saying what where is Westfield yeah well take us to the beginning where does
that process start and how do you get your name in the Hat so it was happening behind the scenes before I was even aware of it Indianapolis or Central Indiana was on their radar screen because we host great events right whether it be the swim trials whether it be Super Bowl Indianapolis has a reputation of putting on Amazing events so they were looking around at some of the different locations and Steve hanky who uh owns chadam got word of it and started a full-blown sales pitch on live to come to Westfield I was in Houston at the time at a conference and I get a
call on my phone he's like where you at mayor he like I'm in Houston he says I need you back here today I'm like why he said Greg Norman and the and the live team is flying in they want to meet you they want to talk about live in Westfield I'm like live no way and that started well I was back in April that started you just get on a plane got on a plane that I called my uh administrative assistant said get me on the first flight out and I was back in Indiana that evening we had met I met with Greg Norman who
was a childhood hero of mine I'm not a huge golfer but I remember growing up you know Greg Norman was the Tiger Woods of my generation and to be able to meet him and shake his hand and just have a conversation like two old friends uh was incredible and uh we just put a full court press on and and we got them what were they what were they looking for as they looked for areas or look for where they were going to host live the most important thing for them was energy from the community they wanted communities to want them to be there um because
keeping mind you know lives coming off that that the whole battle with the PGA and then there's an international piece because they're funded by the Saudis and there's you know some stereotyping and discrimination that can happen because of that so they wanted to belong to a community that wanted them there and I think that's where we shined we showed them a path of why Westfield makes sense I think we rolled out the red carpet and everything we did for them that got them on board here in our community I mean I think it's going to be it's going to be crazy what can we expect
so we're we're changing the golf course Steve's making some Chang he started that this fall before they even made the announcement so we're lengthening the golf course by I think 300 yards and we're adding some bunkers making a little bit more challenging so expect some changes there um where they're going to stay you know Hamilton county has a ton of hotels because of Grand Park and I kind of laughed they like well can you handle 25 to 30,000 people in your city for a golf tournament I'm like we do that every weekend at grah Park in fact there are some weekends we do even much
more than that so we're accustomed to putting on these kinds of events we have the hotels we have the resources we're ready for them so I don't think the the residents of Westfield won't notice a whole lot of difference other than a lot of national and international media in the community Spotlight and yeah is there like the Executive Airport or whatever on the North side it's like you're to have private bus that's crazy man right um that's just that's just wild and I think it's so good I think that a lot of people when they're hosting events and looking for where to host it the
idea of you can be the thing in Westfield like if you go to Chicago like there's probably you know Taylor Swift might be on tour there or whatever whatever whatever is going on but like you're coming to Westfield and it's all live golf that weekend when what's the dates on it uh August the 16th through the 18th I believe 16th 17 it's a Thursday Friday Saturday tournament they don't they don't play on Sunday and uh I'm telling all the residents even if you're not a huge golfer you got to see this because it's not what you envision you think of golf it's an absolute party
golfers want to interact with you we're probably going to have some golfing events with our students at the high school level with um some of our non-for-profits in the community they want to immerse themselves and Westfield while they're here so you'll see the athletes in and about the community interacting yeah as a spectator yeah what sh should we expect uh for the live golf tournament well you won't be doing a lot of this type of clapping like you typically see at PGA it's it's Ruck I mean it's complete Ruckus people yelling people cheering people getting excited uh the golfers interacting like I said they'll talk
with the fans out on the course which you don't see in the PGA it's going to be a very unique experience and when you were going through the process right you know there's four us-based locations that were finalist there were I don't know however many or they International how long was that process of courting and and getting lived to commit to Westfield so I got engaged in April it had already been going on for a few months behind the scene that I wasn't even aware of um I got involved in April and we closed the deal I think it was November who were the finalists
like who did it come down to uh I think the final for our location the Midwest was Chicago Cleveland and Westfield it's cool to see Westfield on the like you know Chicago Cleveland and Westfield and I feel like in the past we've had some big golf events at Crooked Stick Crooked Stick and this is the first time is this the biggest event that chadam hosted like this because it's pretty new golf course right absolutely it's the biggest event Westfield's ever hosted from an international stage perspective for people coming in from out of town like if you you know let's say someone from Saudi Arabia happens
to see this doing their research on Westfield what can they expect what are some Insider tips on how to navigate Westfield for the live golf tournament we are hooers right and we are we have hooer Hospitality in Westfield you're going to find it's a very small town culture to our community so you expect people to be warm and friendly and engaging with you so if you come from a a place on this Earth where you don't make eye contact and chitchat with strangers you're probably going to feel uncomfortable in Westfield uh because we're very hospitable and what we do um so I I think people
will find when they come here they're going to be they're going to be welcom we're going to roll out the red card um we're going to have a we're used to putting on these events we're going to have a lot of things going on to uh entertain uh the res or the tourists that come in um and we got some fantastic restaurants that they're going to be able to partake of as well what's the craziest idea or marketing strategy or anything that that someone said hey we should do XYZ like driving cont or whatever for for live golf well I don't know there's been any
crazy ideas but they had mentioned about some kind of like a proam or some kind of a golf day and I'm trying to get them to agree to allow our high school kids our junior high high school boys and girls teams to golf with the pros in like a like a proam style competition so we're working through those details I don't know if we'll get it done but uh that's something I'm really super excited that would be incredible for people out there that don't understand the significance of this event can you give us like why is this why is hosting live golf so impactful to
Westfield the economic impact of this is roughly we're we're guess between 22 and $30 million of economic incentives that are going to flow in Westfield because of this event that is significant but that to me is not the biggest thing it's the public relations it's the notoriety we're going to get through the media uh when all the eyes are centered on Westfield for three days that's priceless and uh that's something you can't replicate as a city um unless you have an event like that and that's going to put Westfield on a whole new map we're on the map right now especially around Grand Park this
is just going to take it to the next level and an event like this can really change the course for a city exactly so as you you know you have August on the on the docket you know live golf is coming how do you continue to accelerate through live golf and bring more and more cool things versus getting through that like cool we did it like that was like that's our Peak you know how do you continue to keep your foot on the gas well and and ironically we'll have the foot on the gas before we get there because the Colts are in town for
about 6 to8 weeks they'll be literally packing up and leaving Westfield as live flies in so it's going to be a very busy summer for our city but we have FIFA potentially on the horizon as well we were announced as one of 24 cities that will be a primary base camp for one of the national teams that play in the World Cup and that's in 2026 um so we got to start thinking about that as well and of course lives coming back in 2026 as well so in 2026 we're going to have two major international events w year yeah we got we got two years
with a third year potential option um I'm not expecting that third year but if we get it it' be great but yeah we have a twoyear contct you roll out the who's your hospitality you know you just have two killer years and they're like oh heck yeah why would they want to come back right it's Westfield uh what is being a base camp for FIFA what does that mean so that's where the teams and their National media will will basically house themselves there's there's games going to be played all over North America in the first several rounds um Mexico all cross United States the actual
World Cup championships I believe is in New Jersey um but it games will go all over the Midwest so they'll play all over the the nation they will plant their Flags in different cities and then they'll fly in and out for the games they'll come back that's where they train that's where they eat and live it's where their media will position themselves to you know film and send uh stories back to their Homeland so we'll we'll have most likely we'll have it's not 100% guarantee but there's 48 teams and there's 24 preferred SES so I think statistically we're in a good place wouldn't that be
crazy if like Ronaldo or whoever like I don't even know who the best soccer players in the world any but like they like their team gets based in Westfield and you're just like at at dinner at chba and you look over and you're like that guy has 500 million followers on Instagram and he's chilling and was about Twee I at CH was Sushi I mean can you imagine that uh that was like when Shaq came for all-star weekend and he went to Country Kitchen down on uh college and he tweeted went to Country Kitchen in Indianapolis that macaroni on point and they were it was
lines at the door open to close like it totally like they're already a really good spot like Obama had eaten there when he came to town but Shaq tweets that and I I was like oh maybe I should try this out finally no you couldn't it was like a two-hour wait to get food it was crazy like imagine that happening in Westfield okay so other than major events and attracting you know more international events and things like that what else is on the docket uh on the Outlook cuz is the mayor term four years it's four years so my drma run through 2027 so between
now and 2027 besides attracting more major events what can we expect out of Westfield well we're working on two things right now um from a Redevelopment perspective um we're trying to revitalize the downtown area in Westfield uh We've released a four-phase plan phase one we're executing right now it's going to totally transform the downtown of Westville you know it's rare that a city can literally start with a blank easel and build the city from scratch it's kind of what we're doing in our downtown area I'm really really excited about that we're trying to create a more walkable livable uh downtown to attract the younger Generations
um and then Grand Park uh we just announced last night a new vision for a Grand Park uh District it's going to House corporate headquarters uh anything and everything that touches the sports industry we're trying to attract down there more restaurants more shops we want the 5.5 million visits that come into Grand Park we want them spending their dollars here and not going else right now we're tracking dollar spent as far north as Lafayette and cooko as far south as Columbus Indiana we can't house all the people that come in and we certainly don't have the restaurants and shops to keep them here so we're
working on a vision that will keep those dollars in our community that that brings me into kind of another question that I had for you obviously Hamilton County very well known for you know the caramel the Fishers you go over Boon County has zionville that's growing really quickly how much do you look to the caramels and the Fishers as inspiration versus maybe competition of like you you are competing for the same dollars where people are going to plant their flag and live at well I I look at our sister s in Hamilton kind when they have success we have success when fisers lands a new
company a lot of them are probably going to live in Westfield Carmel Noblesville we all benefit from that so it yes it's competitive but we all cheer each other on from the sidelines uh but yeah it's a challenge how you distinguish yourself from other cities are doing great things we're looking at the successes of those cities and there are pieces to that that we're going to pull into Westfield but we're looking much broader than that we're looking globally we've traveled to uh Georgia we traveled to Texas we're looking at unique developments all through the country and bringing those ideas into a uniquely Westfield uh Vision
we want to do things differently yes we love caramel yes we love Fishers and Noblesville and we're going to steal from them a little bit but we want something very unique that's different from our competition quick pause to tell you about one of my new favorite spots Indianapolis Back N golf if you haven't been yet you're missing out this is the perfect way to get your swings in no matter what the weather's like outside this place isn't your average golf range it's a full-blown experience locally owned locally operated these guys are all about bringing the community together for a good time they've got climate controlled
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the coolest places I've been to that I'm really hoping someone in in Indiana picks up have you been to Kansas City I have best barbecue in the world in Kansas City the Power and Light District in Kansas with the giant like awning roof thing and the stage up front and then all the shops around like Midtown caramel kind of has that that Vibe a little bit but just not not quite to the level where they could just host events or host concerts without having to bring in a stage every weekend the Power and Light District uh in Kansas city was one of the coolest places
I've I've wasted a Saturday watching football and and drinking a few beers like it was so cool so like I think it's really really impactful when people in positions of power go and see what's going and what's working in other places like a lot of times whether it's going to the coast and seeing what's working in LA versus San Francisco to New York or going to other metropolitans like Columbus Ohio or different places like that to see what's working and bring a little flavor of all that back here and then put a hooer spin on it and boom there you go and in my last
uh couple years in the Marine Corps before I became mayor I was in a job where I traveled I me I flew all over the country twice a week twice a month I'm gone um and I went Coast to Coast so I've traveled all through the country all over the world I've seen the best and the worst of what's offered and every time I go into City I take pictures I take notes and we bring that back and we brainstorm that we were just in Frisco Texas most people like what's in fris it's a fantastic City and 20 years ago it was the size of
Westfield about 60,000 people it's over 300,000 people now and they've landed their major league soccer team down in Texas Dallas Cowboys the Dallas Stars all those professional sports teams have relocated their headquarters to Frisco through very unique development and we're looking at some of those things as we look at Grand Park and that's our kind of professional franchise and so we're looking at again all these different communities that have some really neat things that you're not seeing here in Indiana right now I do think that's something to keep in people's minds right going from 10,000 to 50 60,000 Isn't Easy by any means but like
okay you can get there with a few right dominoes of all the right in the right places going from 60 to 300 that's just unbelievable that is and the good part about West Field though is you have a lot of space we do uh but we're landlocked more than you would think so if we continue to grow at the Cas we're growing at we we'll pass caramel and Fishers for sure we just got more just based on land mass if we continue to develop like those two cities have we'll be bigger than both of them um but we're on we're the northern border of our
Township we're not going to grow Beyond Westfield's Township so we're a little bit more limited in that way you would think we could grow North till the cows come home but that's not true um because just how annexation I was going say what would be the what's the town or the city or the township that would be north of you uh Sheridan it's Adams Township but it's this the town of Sheridan and they control zoning there so we just can't step in and steal their money you can't just go hey we think we'll take this from you thank you very much so you know we
we'll probably end up around 120 130,000 it won't happen why I'm mayor but the future of Westfield will eventually take us to that level what prediction do you have for the entire Northern suburbs of Indianapolis my prediction is Noblesville would be the biggest city in Hamilton County really because they just annexed another Township they have twice the land of everybody else now they're not seeing the rapid growth rates that we're seeing in fisers caramel and Westfield but they have a lot more to play with and Chris Jensen's an amazing mayor he's doing a great job there and if he stays around very long I anticipate
they'll eventually be bigger than all of us how often are you and the mayors of Carmel Westfield or Carmel Noblesville Fishers like getting in a room and jetting about Hamilton County and what's going on there so we formally have a dinner once a quarter we bring into three County Commissioners as well and we'll have a dinner and talk about challenges and things going on in our community but we have a text ring I was talking to the three other Mayors this morning on text at 6:30 this morning Chris Jensen sent out a text to myself Sue and Scott and you know we're bannering back and
forth so we're always sharing ideas sometimes I'll call one of them to to ask a question or compare notes on on a particular topic but we have a wonderful relationship it's great to have people like that that you can lean on for Westfield sports who's the biggest rival we are the elephant in the room I'm just telling you I mean everybody wants to be Westfield OB our football team is is Superior in Hamilton County and I can remember years growing up in Westfield uh early in my time there that we were not that um but we have been the giant the elephant in football for
a long time it's that Jumbotron like I think 2014 2013 I so I'm from a small town in northern Indiana my high school football team unfortunately we weren't very good we won six games in four years and I would drive to Indianapolis and I'd just be like looking over to the left I come in South and I just be like damn they have a jumbo Dron like they're playing in the big leagues and I like like our school the scoreboard has a couple light bulbs missing like what's going on here well I grew up in a similar school so I can relate but yes are
you from Indiana origin I am I grew up in cooko um just north of Westfield 20 minutes I went to a very tiny school called Taylor I had about Taylor Titans Taylor Titans you know us we just won our first football sectional this year I was so proud of them ever ever the school's fairly new I was built in the 70s I had about 130 in my class they're down to like 90 kids a class now we used to play Westfield in basketball when I was in high school and we would laugh about how small Westfield was and now Westfield's got 800 kids a class
and my school has about 90 so uh the shoes have certainly turned but wow and then when when you think about growing a city obviously you want to keep getting more vents more places to eat all that fun stuff Grand Park is the idea of attracting more businesses like I think that's worked really well for Fishers like they've done a good job of attracting companies to move their headquarters relocate to fish and their their downtown district has done a good job with tech compan specifically is that something that's on the docket for Westfield trying to attract more corporate headquarters to come to Westfield yes but
that game has changed I mean Carmel kind of showed the path with uh US31 how they put all those corporate headquarters and you know 8 10 story buildings on the road there yeah the the Death Star that was car that is car Global or whatever it's called now it's like the all black building and then uh what is it zotek right next to it it's all white building like those those are sweet office space they have some great office space but the game's changing there and they've got a lot of empty offices right now so that's changed Fishers is capitalizing on some of the newer
types of development with the mixed use component um we're certainly looking at both I don't know we won't be a caramel uh but we'll be a little bit more diverse so we're going to look into high-tech manufacturing other pieces that maybe Noblesville has has pursued in the past uh We've landed a couple of Biotech companies since I became mayor we're going heavily after the health care sector I mean yeah we'd like to get some offices and and other things to kind of round out our commercial tax base but gr Park will also be a piece that nobody else has the sports industry is something we're
going to really capitalize yeah and when you think about Grand Park on a national scope how significant is Grand Park being in Westfield well a lot of people don't realize how big Grand Park is and how much tourism it drives to the state of Indiana gr Park brings more tourist Indiana than any other component when you rank the top 100 uh tourist destinations for sport venues uh Conference Centers uh stadiums what have you Westfield ranked 16th in the country oh Lucas Oil is 78th it's not even close all four Youth Sports people are crazy for Youth Sports people are we've lost our minds on it
have we not Sports consumes our culture now and we're we're capitalizing where do you think the furthest team has traveled to come to Grand Park California if you look at the heat map most of it's in the midwest but we're getting turn we're getting teams from all over the country I don't think there's probably a state in the Union that we haven't seen at least one team come from we got to can we can we go check has Alaska has Hawaii maybe not Alaska and Hawaii that's a good point but 48 states on the mainland I'm pretty confident them that's pretty sweet I don't think
that people appreciate that nearly especially if you're not in the youth sports game like if you don't know about all the craziness especially baseball baseball families travel they do every weekend you're in Ohio Indiana Kentucky Georgia Texas like you're all over the place for travel baseball or travel softball too it's crazy and now we're look we just announced last night we're looking at a four rink ice rank uh in Westfield so now we're going to go after the winter sports because what we see at Grand Park is huge peaks in the summertime and late spring all the way to early fall but then it bottoms
out during the winter months so we're looking at bringing in some winter components to the campus to bring a yearr round tourist um destination for our city that that is so cool when you're when you're thinking about how residents can stay informed get involved any tips that you have for for the Westfield residents that might be listening to help make their voices heard well follow us on Facebook um when I first took office we didn't have a lot of follow followers on our Facebook page and Instagram we have dramatically increased that I've got an amazing director of communications who has spent a lot of time
focusing on that and we communicate daily sometimes two three four times daily um things going on in the city so if you want to be tapped in and your Social Media Net go to Facebook go to Instagram like our page and you'll be tapped in we also have a quarterly uh actually it's a Weekly Newsletter and uh we're also publishing now a quarterly newspaper that goes into every uh mailbox in Westfield so we're overc communicating if you're not getting information get out of your hole because we're we're we're pushing information from every corner we can heck yeah uh the last thing I wanted to talk
about when we're kind of looking ahead on the horizon was the Entertainment District that was proposed is that like a I think a 10year plan or something along the lines of that was that what a piece of the ice rinks will be in that what what else can we expect that's on the the potential dicket for that well we're pursuing a few sports headquarters right now we're in the mix on three separate um companies I can't talk about um but we're going to be looking at attracting those um corporations that are in the World of Sports um we're also looking at a sports Tech Hub
you know Fishers did their their Tech Hub we're going to do ours centered around the sports industry I mean how many businesses could benefit from a 400 acre Sports campus where they could test their product so we're going to create a like a workhub tech Hub there at the campus and then expect mixed use we want more people living in the Grand Park area um which will help us bring in more restaurants more retail and other types of family entertainment that our visitors desperately want and quite frankly our our residents want as well yeah I've been up to one my favorite spots up in Westfield
is westfork westfork wesy they're uh Blake and his crew up there they're they're good people so there are definitely cool things there I definitely see on the horizon you know putting all these puzzle pieces together is a fun challenge that uh that luckily you get to be at the the Helm of as we're kind of getting close to the end of the show and wrapping up I do a couple fun segments and questions things like that so this question is brought to you by friends or Fellowship they're a great organization here in Indianapolis helping develop young Business Leaders across the state so mayor Willis what
advice would you give to your 22-year-old self the sky the limit don't ever think that you're stuck doing something for the rest of your life when you look at my life and my career and the different paths I've taken 22 years old I would never Envision being where I'm at today yeah I mean you were in the Marines I was in the Marines I got an engineering degree from Purdue and my parents just about stroked out when I told them I'm joining the Marine Corps I spent 30 years in the Marines not all that was active duty when I came off active duty I started
up a couple of businesses I still own one of those companies what's the company uh it's called Jarhead Holdings Jarhead is a nickname for Marines and I invest in commercial and residential properties hey yeah so I did I I bought my first office for my primary company and I just created an LLC to hold it and as my company grew and I had outgrew the space I bought another one next thing you know I'm like hey this is actually brings in Revenue so we I started buying other properties and we we not huge I got like eight or nine properties and a did so your
parents probably thought did everybody else think you were crazy you graduate from pury with an engineering degree what what made you want to go into the service so I have a history of service in my family all the way my great-grandfather was a Marine in World War I so we have Marines through every generation of my family and when I was at Purdue um in 1991 Desert Storm happened and I immediately felt that like I gotta go I gotta I Gotta Serve my country it's what we do in my family I went down and signed up of course the war was way over before I
graduated uh but that set me on that trajectory to be a marine and it's just who I am quite frankly well first off I appreciate thank you for your service app I think it's so cool to hear these different Pathways that people end up taking from I mean you've lived several different lives right from Marine to Purdue Purdue engineer to Marine to business owner to now mayor I I think that that advice to your 22y old self it's like just cuz you get out on this pathway does it mean that you're stuck for the next 60 years of like you could only be an active
duty marine or you could only be a Purdue engineer or you could if you don't get into politics at 22 you're you're over it's done that's right that's right I self-funded my college I I came from a very poor family graduated from college with about $30,000 worth of debt back in 1992 and took a job in the Marine Corps paying me $28,000 a year Ian it was a very low paying job I could have made a lot more money in Corporate America the stars are lineing for a reason and I am here today because of all those experiences that uh that I that I had
as a young man and you're still a rabid pretty fan correct oh my gosh yeah and I we we did some some sleuthing on the internet on on Pur game days is the do you have some tradition or something to do with like a hat or something on game day I used to and then when they started losing the Hat became unlucky and I stopped wearing hats okay so so what we had was you never leave the house without your lucky Purdue hat but since then we have we have canceled that and it goes beyond that it was lucky Purdue socks Purdue shirt class ring
I had this this whole attire that I wore and it worked for me for a while and then when Purdue football started Bing out I was like this is all bad luck now I don't wear it anymore it's gone okay what's your favorite tradition that Purdue has during the opening ceremony before football games they do I am an American and I don't know if you ever seen the home Purdue football game but it's a very special piece to what they do in their pregame ceremony and it it's basically saying I am an American and it talks about being an American and why they're doing that
the band's play leading up to the national anthem and it's just for me it's a it's a chilling experience and something that I I feel a lot of Pride about serving and and being an American heck yeah boiler makers I I think that's so cool that that that's amazing and the biggest drum the world's biggest drug the world's biggest Dr how does it get any better than that right home to the world we may not win football games but we have the world's biggest drug a hey we're going to get on the right track was the old the UNLV coach Barry odm excited come on
like especially without you being good we don't talk about that yeah you really got to get it figured out there um okay next question what is the biggest perk of serving as mayor man I'm not sure there is a big perk like reserved parking spot in the Town Square I don't even get a reserve parking spot in the city hall what I I get no perk you know at Christmas time I get a lot of chocolates or goodies people want braining goodies to theity that might be the the 20 pounds I gain every December that's the biggest per oh I love that is there a
book that you would recommend everyone read man I'm I'm a reader and I've got a lot of books on reading right now one book I'm reading now is on it's called the mosquito Bowl um it's a great book I won't Deep dive into it too much but I don't know if there's a single book but I'm a huge George Washington I love reading about George Washington his history I've read multiple books about his time both as a Young Man all the way through his presidency and if you have not studied our founding fathers you owe it to yourself to do so it's truly remarkable how
they put this country on the trajectory that it's on now they certainly weren't flawless they had their their warts but uh amazing men who had a vision I mean they carved something out of nothing there was no road map to what happened here in America and I just love reading about them I I'm a history buff and I've just I love all sorts of I mean from World War II too I'm currently reading Elon musk's biography which has a slight piece of his because over the last 20 30 years or whatever and just like hearing about these crazy cool leaders and inventors and people that
just changed the world it's like man like back to your advice for 22y old like the sky literally is the limit you just have to go out there and make it happen that's right uh what is a must attend event in Westfield Westfield rocks the fourth is uh our fourth of July celebration and we have thousands of people come into the seats it's one of the best fireworks displays I think in the state um we have food vendors it's just a really fun day to come and celebrate our nation's birthday Beyond events I think the one thing you have to experience in Westfield is Park
Street you have to come down to Park Street we've refurbished these little old houses some of them are historical and nature but old houses and we have these really cool eclectic restaurants down there nyas um Italian House chba Greeks we have so many really neat restaurants and it's like stepping back in time uh when you get into Park Street so you need to come down and experience that will you lead me right into my next question what's the best date night spot in Westfield you know if you're trying to woo an individual probably nyla's it's it's probably my favorite restaurant in Westfield it's an old
Red Barn that they turn into a a really neat uh resta and it's it's not lit real well it's got a lot of candles it's got a really cool bar and the menu is just Fant everything on that menu is unbelievable and so from a romantic St standpoint probably nylers are next door at the Italian House those two are are pretty high up on and if we're doing an activity before or after dinner what are we doing well after dinner you should walk across the street to Grand Junction our award-winning Park it's a 5 acre Park and it's got a lot of long places where
you can just spread out a blanket we've created a door District now at Grand Junction so bring a sign me up open grab a grab a glass of wine at nyla's and take it out onto the lawn and sit out there and enjoy a cocktail with your loved one heck yeah I wow you just sold it um when you coming come on I know I got it I like rivet rivet's great on Park it's the little it's a house it's a coffee shop great in the summer has great outdoor seating there they do I'm a fan there and one I played in a volleyball league
at the jungle it's like a gym SL Court like I had a really good time up there and then birdies birdies is great birdies is a good date night spot the the new place now to play like volleyball is I Beach they do a lot of competitions and tournaments there as well just around the corner from Grand Park but they have a lot of beach volleyball uh courts as well so that's a hot spot now we have a lot of leagues that play there yeah um it's a great place to hang out on Friday these are the same three questions that I asked everyone that
sits in the chair so we're going to start with what is something that the world needs to know about Indiana you can't find a more welcoming State than Indiana I've traveled the world I've traveled the country and the one thing that always resonates me when I come home is how nice people are I know a lot of people move away because of beaches or mountains or this but there is something special truly about the people of Indiana and I know we all say that but when you get out there and you actually experience it and go live and check out other places travel the world
it's like there is something special about coming back and you know grabbing a beer at your favorite local spot and CH with the that is great advice too for people who come for Liv like be prepared for some chitchat people hold the door for you for far too long you're you're 100 meters out there I'm opening this door and wait for you that's right so hurry up let's get up here next what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana I'd say Park Street or even like zionville with their downtown area these little tiny old towns or old areas of of a community that were turn into
a Gathering Place for your community and I I love going to zville the restaurants we're building the same thing on Park Street but it's a place where you can go and and just experience you know the community and and have uh some fun with your friends grab a nice meal grab a drink um I think those two places are are high on my list the Park Street vibe and I never kind of put that the scen the similarities together but the village of Z of that little Brick Street downtown area those are very yeah where you have like I love the local own nonchain places
that's really cool to me where a local restaurant tour business owner comes and puts their flag in the ground and and builds something special in the community that is one of one right yeah I think those are those are really really cool and when you look at how development's happening especially in growing cities like Westville to carve out a place like Park Street it's unheard of uh because it doesn't shed off a lot of assessed value and a lot of tax revenue and but it's eclectic and it's Unique and it's what makes Westfield Westfield so we're gonna we're going to expand on that but it's
hard to find places like that last question of the lightning Round Here who is the hooer that we need to keep on our radar someone who's doing big things do you know Mitch Frasier agran nois agran nois uh just was awarded the sagore the wall bash by the governor I've known Mitch for many years he he led the fundraising efforts for our new YMCA the man is exceptionally talented but more importantly he's just a nice guy I've never met anybody who doesn't like Mitch and I I I I teased him I said you need to run for governor and use the the logo or slogan
my man Mitch right copy that but he actually worked for Mitch Daniels uh very early in his career when he came off uh out of college he he was in the Army got out went to college so he's a veteran just everything about Mitch I love you talk about like living 10 different lives Mitch Frasier 20 different lives from army to exact target uh I think he was in marketing or PR at exact target to running Reynolds Farm Equipment to back then to Agron noas like those are just like wild and oh by the way he got into running he's running marathons now u i
mean just everything he chooses to do he he's just success that is a I didn't I didn't know he was a Westfield resident that is a proud one to have that's a hoer that we've everyone if you don't have him on your radar you need to put them on there you need to put Mitch Frasier on there uh the final question that I have for you just as I'm curious about you know being the mayor and all the different things going on big events like live coming FIFA taxes trying to develop this this that the other thing Grand Park what is the hardest part about
being the mayor of Westfield you know sticking to a vision I call myself a professional Arrow catcher no matter what decision I make I'm taking arrows from somebody somebody's not going to like what you're doing and having the conviction and the vision to stay the path when you know that's the right path despite the noise that's going on around you it can be very challenging um and that's something that I'm that I sometimes even struggle with you know you think you've got this great idea and then you hear a lot of negative feedback and just having the conviction to stay the course yeah I've talked
to leaders from whether it's politics or business and one thing I see specifically of like small SLG growing towns as you fight between people who want to stay small and traditional First grow and Thrive and you know build a robust economy with the rise of the internet and social media I talked to someone uh they were governor of a small town for you know from 2000 to 2016 2012 like around the time that the Facebook comes out and Twitter comes out all of a sudden you used to if you had a problem with the mayor you had to go into City Hall like talk to
him face to face and then all of a sudden everything you look every other Facebook post or group is like somehow like I get the same kind of feedback all I do is promote the state of Indiana but somehow I'm the worst guy who needs to move out of the state because I'm doing the keyboard Warriors hate everything that's crazy so I just want to say keep up the good work like we see it people see Westfield growing attracting an event like Liv like doesn't happen if the the person that's at the tip of the spear isn't isn't doing their job and working hard so
kudos to you keep up all the great work I'm excited we're going to check back in before 2027 we're going to see how things have been going uh along the path and everything laid out there hopefully by that point we'll be renewing Liv for that third third year of the contract right well you need to do a podcast at chadam during Liv with one of the golfers we need to find a way to make that happen how about Greg Norman maybe we get Greg to sit down with if you make that Happ oh my go might have to put hq2 in Westfield I I'll be
I'll be one of the first businesses to move up there that would be crazy cool uh I love that we're what whatever it is we're going to have to do something up at live absolutely some type of live thing get people up there cuz I see it it's like if you're in media and you're on social media specifically like Liv is crushing it and there might be some people in the state of Indiana that don't realize how big they're like What's this JV Golf League it's not a JV Golf League like best golfers in the world are playing and live and make it there's just
so much money attached to that so it's huge thank you for all the hard work go Rocks come on baby yes sir all right appreciate it thank you for listening to this episode of get in if you like what you heard make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast this show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater.com if you want to behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state
make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik toac @nate SP bangle thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the hooer state great we'll see you next time here on get in
