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No. 14
Revenue growth FY 2021 to 2023: 109.6%
2023 revenue: $14.6 million
Jim Sapp says he didn’t expect that his business would make the Fast 25 again—the fourth consecutive year—because the bigger you get, the more challenging it is to keep up that pace of growth. Yet here RISE Commercial District is, still growing revenue as the provider of office space, warehouse space and business storage space keeps adding locations. “I’m a little surprised that somebody hasn’t caught on to what I’m doing,” Sapp says. “We’re the first company doing midsize warehousing on short-term leases. I think it helps being the first.”
How location No. 2 led to location No. 13. And counting: RISE began with a Castleton location. It did well for seven years. Maybe, Sapp thought, a south-side location would do well, too. It did. Well, maybe Ohio, too. OK, well, maybe … . RISE now has locations in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota. “It took me about seven years,” Sapp says. “And I thought, this is working pretty good. I should sell my garage door company and just do this.”
Barriers to entry: The same factors that likely are keeping competitors at bay also are likely limiting franchisee growth. Most company growth is corporate-owned, Sapp says. RISE is getting more interest from potential franchisees, but people don’t realize how expensive of a proposition it is to get started. Each site averages about 140,000 square feet over 18 buildings, about a $20 million investment when finished over two phases. “Bank financing is so hard right now,” Sapp says. “I think it’s difficult for franchisees.”
Hair you go: With shared amenities such as forklifts and conference rooms, RISE suggests a clientele of midsize distributors. But RISE also offers offices, storage and flex space. Amid the pandemic, much of the office space remained empty. Sapp, who owned a hair salon about a decade ago, had an idea. He put a salon in at the Greenwood RISE location. “That,” Sapp says, “has really taken off.” Now the company is adding salons at its locations in Fort Wayne and in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio.•
Check out more of IBJ’s ranking of Indy’s fastest-growing companies.
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