Construction has begun on a 220,000-square-foot speculative industrial building being developed by HSA Commercial in partnership with Great Point Investors LLC in the Gateway Business Park at 1025 Columbia Road, in Plainfield, IN, just outside Indianapolis. Crews from the project's general contractor, Fishers, IN-based Meyer Najem, have begun the mass earthwork and site utilities and will start erecting the wall panels next month.

“Since Meyer Najem built the other two buildings at the Gateway Business Park, as well as the build-to-suit for the Federal Aviation Administration just south of our site, they are familiar with Plainfield requirements and have moved very quickly so far,” says Craig Phillips, executive vice president of development with HSA Commercial. “As long as we maintain this pace, we should have all of the walls up for the building shell by the end of the year.”

The original story appears below:

INDIANAPOLIS—Developers have been putting up new warehouses and distribution centers throughout the country, but few areas have been as hot as Indianapolis. Therefore, it's no surprise that HSA Commercial has decided to launch their third speculative industrial development this year near that city. They will partner with Boston-based Great Point Investors LLC to build a new 220,000-square-foot warehouse building at Gateway Business Park near Columbia Road and Ronald Reagan Parkway in Plainfield, Ind.

“There has been a lot of positive leasing activity with third-party logistics tenants in Indianapolis throughout the past couple years particularly in the Plainfield submarket,” says Robert Smietana, vice chairman and CEO of Chicago-based HSA Commercial. “With the supply of first-class industrial product running out and e-commerce fueling new demand for high-cube distribution centers, HSA and Great Point saw this as the perfect opportunity to start building again in Indy.”

Located on 13 acres immediately southwest of Indianapolis International Airport, the new industrial building will feature 32' clear heights, 24 truck docks, 4 drive-in doors, 155 parking spaces and quick access to Interstate 70 and the rest of the regional interstate system.

The project will extend what has already been an active year for HSA. Last spring, the firm broke ground on a 180,480-square-foot spec warehouse in west suburban Chicago. A short time later, in another partnership with Great Point, they broke ground on a 218,500-square-foot building in Waukegan, IL, the first spec industrial project that area had seen in a long time. The partners expect to finish it in Q4 2013.

Other developers have also jumped into the Indianapolis market with spec buildings. The Opus Group, for example, has decided to develop and construct two spec warehouses totaling 924,530-square-feet at the Plainfield Business Center in Plainfield. And the Sunbeam Development Corporation recently purchased the I-70 West Commerce Park in suburban Monrovia and plans to construct a 525,000-square-foot spec development at the site.

A wave of distribution development has hit Indiana and other Midwestern markets like Memphis and Columbus. And their central locations, access to vast interstate road networks, air cargo hubs and proximity to other major population centers should continue attracting developers for the foreseeable future.

According to Colliers, “the Indianapolis industrial market delivered more than 2.06-million-square-feet of new investment-grade industrial buildings in the first quarter of 2013, with the vast majority of new product located in the Southwest (Plainfield) and Northwest (Allpoints Anson) submarkets.” Particularly significant was the delivery of Industrial Developments International's 795,000-square-foot speculative project at Ameriplex Business Park and the Prologis/Browning Investments' 622,440-square-foot building in the AirTech Business Park.

Michael Caprile, vice chairman, and Steve Roth, executive vice president, of CBRE secured Great Point Investors for the joint venture with HSA at both Waukegan and Plainfield. Chicago-based The PrivateBank is providing construction financing for the Gateway Business Park spec development. Fishers, Ind.-based Meyer Najem will serve as the project's general contractor, and JRA Architects is responsible for the project design.

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Spec Construction Begins in Hot Indy

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