Indy company growing co-warehousing model
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An Indianapolis-based company is continuing to expand its co-warehousing services in central Indiana with an eye for more locations. RISE Commercial District’s model, similar to coworking spaces, allows small businesses to lease up to 3,000 square feet of warehousing, office or business storage space. The company, which has a goal of 25 locations by 2025, recently completed construction on its Noblesville location and last month received approval for a location in Avon.
Allison Barber, director of marketing for RISE, tells Inside INdiana Business the model allows small businesses to enter into the warehousing world without a full-scale commitment.
“Many of our customers come from running their business out of their garage or their sunroom, but it’s getting in the way of life. They don’t have a really secure way of storing things,” said Barber. “If they need to get a shipment from a semi, obviously semis have a really hard time delivering in residential areas. So, it really limits the growth that their business can have.”
RISE was founded in 2010 by Jim Sapp, who at the time was running a garage door company and bought a warehouse space in the Castleton area in Indianapolis that was larger than he needed. He says others came to him asking to rent space for a short period of time, which led to the idea for RISE.
The company was named to the IBJ’s Fast 25 list for the last two years. In 2021, RISE reported $6.9 million in revenue, with 128% total revenue growth from 2019 to 2021.
Since its founding, RISE has grown from one location to 13 in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The company says every site that’s at least a year old is at 98% occupancy or greater, according to the IBJ.
Barber says the growth is not just for the company itself, but its customers as well.
“[The model] allows them to grow with us,” she said. “We see a lot of times, customers come in with 200-500 square feet and build somewhere close to one of our facilities, and they’ve got 4,000 to 5,000 square feet at the time that they’re leaving us. So, it’s really just a way to kind of put training wheels on growing your business.”
The expansion of RISE is expected to continue as the company received its franchise license in April. Barber says the franchise model will be a collaborative effort.
“If somebody is interested in opening a RISE location for their business community, we will work hand-in-hand with them to select the locations, to work with zoning and cities to make sure that it’s built in a way that is successful and profitable for the franchisee, as well as for the businesses that are in the community.”