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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis’ red-hot industrial market has lured a new developer to town—Chicago-area Molto Properties LLC has purchased 47 acres in the AmeriPlex business park and plans to build a 621,000-square-foot building there on a speculative basis.
The site is at 5425 Exploration Drive south of Interstate 70, near the southwestern edge of Indianapolis International Airport.
The land sale closed on Monday. Construction will begin this spring, and the building is expected to be finished in the fourth quarter.
Molto declined to reveal how much it is investing in the project—its first in Indianapolis.
Jason Speckman, executive vice president of Industrial Services for Colliers International’s Indianapolis office, estimated the project cost, including land purchase and construction, could be around $25 million.
Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based Molto was founded in 2008 and has more than 5 million square feet of properties under management. It specializes in buying, developing and operating industrial properties, mostly in the Chicago area and elsewhere in the Midwest.
“We are very excited to expand the Molto footprint,” Molto Managing Principal and Founder Todd Naccarato said in a written statement. “Indianapolis is a strong industrial market, and the property’s strategic location capitalizes on critical transportation networks, connecting across the United States.”
Speckman said it’s not surprising to see a developer entering Indianapolis right now because the market is so strong.
“2016 had the most activity in our industrial market since we have been keeping statistics,” he said.
According to Collier’s research, the Indianapolis metro area saw 9.1 million square feet of net absorption between industrial property owners and tenants in 2016. “That is a historically high number,” Speckman said.
The vacancy rate for the local industrial market at the end of 2016 was about 5 percent—about half of what it was six years ago.
“We are seeing new players wanting to have positions in Indianapolis every day,” Speckman said.
Molto is teaming with a couple of Indianapolis partners on the project.
Terry Busch and John Hanley of CBRE represented Molto on the land sale and will also work to find a tenant for the building.
AmeriPlex developer Holladay Properties Inc. will be Molto’s partner in building the facility.
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