Bell Techlogix landlord buys tech firm’s new headquarters

Bell Techlogix, which announced Aug. 20 that it will add 204 jobs here and move into a new headquarters building, is taking its landlord along for the ride.

Philadelphia-based BPG Properties Ltd., which owns the building at 8888 Keystone Crossing that Bell is vacating, has purchased Bell’s new headquarters at 4400 W. 96th St.

BPG bought the 97,323-square-foot office/warehouse building earlier this month for $3.75 million from a joint venture managed by San Francisco-based ProLogis, a publicly traded real estate investment trust. The lease with Bell was negotiated shortly thereafter.

For BPG, it was an opportunity to buy a headquarters-quality office/warehouse complex at approximately 50 percent below replacement cost, said Brant Glomb, a BPG vice president, in a prepared statement.

The building has been vacant since Arrow Electronics moved out in 2011.

Bell Techlogix will move into 53,885 square feet this November when it consolidates its headquarters and a warehouse operation at 5777 Decatur Blvd. The remaining 44,000 square feet of industrial space in the building is available for lease. Jake Sturman and Steve Schwegman of Jones Lang LaSalle will handle leasing duties.

The property includes almost six acres that could be used for expansion, sold or developed for a build-to-suit client, said Sturman, who said the site is one of the last developable parcels in the 200-acre Mayflower Business Park. Mayflower was developed in the late 1990s by Browning Investments.

Sturman said JLL made BPG aware of the purchase opportunity because Bell was looking for new headquarters space and ProLogis was interested in selling its building.

“We chased it hard,” said Sturman, who, along with JLL’s Adam Broderick, represented BPG in negotiating the 7-1/2 year lease with Bell. They also represented ProLogis in the sale.

Bell was represented by Jeff Harris of NAI Meridian.

As for the space Bell is vacating, JLL has already leased the 20,000 square feet at 8888 Keystone Crossing to First Internet Bank. JLL also handles leasing for the 35,000 square feet of warehouse space that Bell is vacating on Decatur Boulevard.

4400 West 96th Street is the third acquisition BPG has made in the Indianapolis area. In 1997, BPG bought The Precedent Office Park, a one-million-square-foot office complex it sold in 2005. Also in 2005, it bought a portfolio of office properties at Keystone at the Crossing totaling more than 1 million square feet.

Bell, a provider of information technology services to clients across the country, announced its plan to move this fall and add jobs here by 2016 at a news conference attended by Gov. Mitch Daniels. The company will spend about $1.4 million on its new space.