Whiteland will soon be home to three of the largest warehouses in the county.
The Whiteland Town Council approved two tax breaks last week totaling nearly $10 million for construction of three massive speculative buildings west of Interstate 65.
Atlanta, Georgia-based developer Core5 Industrial Partners plans to build two industrial buildings on 129 acres of farmland at 2500 Paul Hand Blvd. in Whiteland. One building will be just more than 500,000 square feet. The other will be 1.1 million square feet.
Core5 plans to invest $70 million in the project, and asked the town council for a $6.7 million 10-year real property tax abatement for both buildings that will be constructed in two phases.
Construction of the 500,000-square-foot building is expected to start next year with a completion date set in 2023. Once the first phase is completed, construction on the 1.1 million-square-foot building will begin in 2023, with an expected completion date in 2024.
Just east of the property, a different developer wants to build another speculative warehouse on a similar plot of land. Hines Acquisition, a Chicago-based developer, plans to construct a 1.1 million-square-foot industrial building on N. 300 E., also known as Warrior Trail, just west of I-65.
Hines will invest $28.8 million in the project, and asked Whiteland for a $3 million 10-year real property tax abatement.
This building, and Core5’s 1.1 million-square-foot building, will be two of the largest warehouses in Johnson County to date. Cooper Tire, also in Whiteland, is 996,000 square feet.
There are no tenants attached to the buildings yet, but town manager Kevin McGinnis hopes to see the spaces filled with logistics businesses, rather than manufacturing, he said.
Both properties will add to a recent boom of industrial development in the area, west of I-65 and east of Graham Road, directly south of the Whiteland Exchange Business Park.
Industrial development is on the rise in Whiteland because there is a large demand for available buildings of this scale in Indiana right now, McGinnis said.
“There seems to be a shortage of industrial buildings throughout the state of Indiana,” he said.
Developing the property by the interstate for industrial use is part of the town’s comprehensive plan, and its long-term vision to grow its assessed value.
“We’re following the comprehensive plan … it makes sense that close to the interstate to bring in those assessed values for the future,” McGinnis said. “Residential subdivisions really wouldn’t go too well that close to the interstate anyway.”
