Carroll County to build manufacturing ‘shell’ to attract industrial operator
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The Hoosier Heartland Industrial Park near Lafayette will soon feature a massive new industrial space which Carroll County officials will market to a new user.
The project is a partnership between the Carroll County Redevelopment Commission and Steinberger Construction Inc. to build out a $5 million “speculative shell” that can accommodate a variety of industrial uses.
Jake Adams, CEO of the Carroll County Economic Development Corp., said the region has seen a manufacturing boom, which drives the need for pre-built sites which private companies can easily fit to their needs.
“The goal with this building is to be the most market-ready industrial location in this North Central Indiana area,” said Adams.
The shell will take around nine months to complete and the first stage will have 50,000 square feet and a 32-foot-high ceiling on 10 acres. Adams said the shell can be expanded up to 100,000 square feet.
The cost of the shell could total $5 million, with the Carroll County Redevelopment Commission putting up $2.5 million of that cost. Once the building is ready, Adams and the county’s economic development corporation will market the shell to interested buyers.
Adams said the county hasn’t undertaken a pre-built shell project like this before in the Hoosier Heartland park, but projects like the Stellantis plant in nearby Kokomo and the SK Hynix plant down the road in West Lafayette show the demand.
“This is really borne out of market demand that we’re getting asked and it’s getting lifted up by all the [original equipment manufacturing] investment that’s happening in our region,” Adams said.