From the Indianapolis Business Journal:
A city initiative that uses tax incentives to attract industrial development to a massive distribution park near Indianapolis International Airport is beginning to show results.
Atlanta-based Industrial Developments International Inc. completed construction of a 794,608-square-foot speculative building within the AmeriPlex Business Park in March and now plans to build a 460,000-square-foot building within the same complex.
IDI bought 26 acres this month to construct the second building there and has two more lots under contract, which ultimately would raise its presence at AmeriPlex to four buildings.
The IDI projects are the first to take advantage of the automatic 10-year real property tax abatement established in 2009 by the city of Indianapolis for World Connect sites at AmeriPlex, envisioned as a seven-building complex on 200 acres.
The World Connect project is expected to add about $84 million to the tax base over the 10 years.
“You have to have a tax abatement to be competitive, or we wouldn’t be building,” said Doug Armbruster, senior vice president and regional managing director of IDI. “It’s just that important.”
South Bend-based Holladay Properties pursued the tax abatement that the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission approved in 2009. In exchange, Holladay is planning to invest $120 million in the World Connect development. The company says the investment could create 1,700 jobs with an average annual salary of $45,000.
City officials say the abatements are necessary to attract industrial development within AmeriPlex, which sits between Interstate 70 and Indiana 67, to stay competitive with neighboring Plainfield. Incentives offered by Plainfield and Hendricks County since Holladay developed AmeriPlex in 1998 have swayed industrial developers to build west of Indianapolis.
“With Hendricks County and the land over there, we needed to follow suit, and that’s what we did with World Connect,” said Deron Kintner, deputy mayor of economic development.
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http://www.ibj.com/incentives-draw-industrial-developer-to-ameriplex/PARAMS/article/41980
