Spot Freight expands downtown headquarters, plans to hire 257

Spot Freight Inc., a fast-growing third-party logistics company, announced plans Thursday to expand its headquarters in downtown Indianapolis and hire another 257 employees by the end of 2023.

While the $2 million expansion was just announced, Spot actually launched it in November when it tripled its office space by moving into 18,000 square feet at 141 S. Meridian St., in the 95-year-old building that previously housed the Jillian’s Entertainment complex.

The new space includes about 170 work stations, so Spot will need to make future expansions in the 144,000-square-foot building if it wants to accommodate all of the planned employees.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Spot up to $1.8 million in conditional tax credits and up to $75,000 in training grants based on the job-creation plans. The incentives won’t be paid unless Spot reaches its hiring goals.

Spot actually the agreement with the IEDC late last year and the contract became effective Sept. 21, when the company had 85 local employees. Spot must have 342 local employees by the end of 2023 to fully qualify for the tax credits.

The company is already hiring for account-management, customer-service and support-staff positions

Founded in 2009, Spot has been one of the area’s fastest-growing companies over the past several years. It ranked fifth on IBJ’s 2016 list of fastest-growing local companies after seeing revenue rise 201 percent, from $21.2 million to $63.8 million, over a three-year period ending in 2015.

The logistics company works with trucking companies to ship freight across the country and in Canada and Mexico. It also has a satellite office in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The company reached a previous incentive agreement with the IEDC effective in 2011 that called for it to receive $650,000 in tax credits if it added 73 jobs by the end of 2015. The company missed that goal by more than 20 employees but still received $77,142 in tax credits through the end of 2016, according to information on the IEDC website.