Steve’s breakdown: This is a substantial investment and should be coupled with a marketing plan. Your marketing plan!!

FORT WAYNE, IN: Sweetwater Sound Inc., a music technology and instrument retailer, will expand its Fort Wayne headquarters, creating up to 316 high-wage jobs by 2016, the company announced today.

The company plans to invest $23.5 million to add 110,000 square feet to its current facility. The new space will house the company’s operations and sales and marketing departments, according to a news release from the Indiana Economic Development Corp., a state board created by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Sweetwater Sound has begun hiring for the new positions in sales, marketing, administrative and distribution.

The state board offered Sweetwater Sound up to $2.75 million in tax credits and up to $150,000 in training grants if the company’s job plan becomes successful.

Chuck Surack, president and founder, started the company as a recording studio at his Fort Wayne home. The Fort Wayne campus now has more than 400 full-time employees.

In 2011, Surack was piloting a helicopter when it crashed in a cornfield near a Noblesville neighborhood. A few people aboard the helicopter received minor injuries, and the aircraft was destroyed by a fire ignited after the crash.

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