Hancock Health leads development of 160-acre mixed-use campus

Hancock Health has expanded its reach beyond health care over the past seven years to become a master developer for a sprawling project on the south side of Interstate 70 in western Hancock County.

The 160-acre campus, known as Hancock Gateway Park, is already home to a small hospital, a pediatric dental surgery center, a senior living community, some sparse retail and a mix of housing. A dual-branded hotel and conference center is under construction. And over the next several years, Hancock Health officials are confident the development will include more than 1,000 housing units, upscale retail and multiple additions to the hospital itself.

But to hear Rob Matt tell it, an expansive development wasn’t always the plan.

“When we went out and bought the ground that Hancock Gateway Park presently resides on, we found ourselves standing there with acreage going, ‘Well, what are we going to do now?’” said Matt, the health care system’s chief operating officer.

“So we began to dip our toe into the development arena … and we began to realize there was a lot of interest in that location as well as opportunities for businesses—future medical opportunities, senior living, retail, commercial business development—on that ground. We began to be real developers.”

While Hancock Health has set aside 48 acres of the site for its own use—including the land on which it already has facilities—the rest is being marketed by Indianapolis-based Tharp Realty Group, with a goal of making the property a destination for people who live in western Hancock County and eastern Marion County.

Hancock is one of the state’s fastest-growing counties. From 1990 to 2023, its population skyrocketed 89% to 86,166. By 2050, it’s expected to have a population of more than 115,000, according to state data site Stats Indiana.

The county is supporting the projects. In 2019, officials created a tax-increment-financing district encompassing Hancock Gateway Park, giving the county a stream of property tax revenue to use for infrastructure upgrades and other site-focused investments.

So far, more than $22 million in TIF revenue has been used to support the project. In addition, Hancock Health and private investors have spent $130 million on projects at the park. Developers say they are eyeing as much as $225 million in future developments at the campus.

“What we’re trying to create here is a village,” said Crystal Kennard, vice president of brokerage for Tharp. That means trying to attract the types of retail and amenities people need, such as a grocery store and sit-down dining.

“There’s a food desert in our immediate area, stretching from New Palestine really up to Fortville,” Kennard said. “We’re going to be very strategic with who we want here, because we are creating an environment where it’s ‘live, work, play,’ and that’s what we’re trying to bring to the Mount Comfort corridor.”

A Starbucks became the first retailer to open on the campus in 2022, followed by Randall Residence, a 176-unit senior living community, in 2023.

The 200-unit Riley Crossing apartments project along Interstate 70 was completed late last year. It’s the first phase of a mixed-use development along the eastern edge of the site that could result in more than 1,200 apartments and town houses and more than 14,000 square feet of retail space over the next decade.

Last October, Sun Development Group—which has offices in Indianapolis and Oklahoma City—broke ground on the $35 million dual-branded Hilton Garden Inn and Home2Suites property, which will also feature a 26,000-square-foot conference center. The project is set to be completed in late 2026.

Over the next several years, Hancock Health plans to further invest in its own site, too. The long-term master plan for the hospital calls for another three-story medical office building as well as a five-story tower atop the existing hospital, which would add 150 beds to the facility. Hancock expects to have parking for nearly 1,200 cars.

Harold Gibson, director of property development at Hancock Health, said the hospital design allows it to sit next to a lake that has been created as part of the development. That will give the developer more flexibility for expansion. The site also offers pedestrian access for those in the senior living community across the lake.

The development team has set aside 25 acres for Hancock Health growth and decided against adding a parking structure due to the costs. But, Gibson said, the site’s flexibility means that could change.

“If it gets to the point where the needs are greater, then we can always add the parking structure and add more square footage to the building,” he said.

‘We’re being very picky’

Tharp’s Kennard said the goal is to bring in higher-end establishments to distinguish the commercial district from the State Road 9 corridor of Greenfield, which features extensive fast-food and big-box retailers. He said that while Hancock Gateway Park has received some inquiries from fast-food restaurants like Taco Bell, the development team shied away from that type of retailer.

“We’re not just going to want anyone to land here,” she said. “We’re being very picky with the restaurants that we choose because of the environment that we’re creating. So we are trying to attract a larger, sit-down restaurant that will be attractive to the hospital, event center and the hotels. We don’t want just any pop-up or drive-thru.”

She also said while the development team would be open to—and welcome—a smaller footprint grocery store of about 10,000 to 20,000 square feet like Trader Joe’s or Fresh Thyme, there are no ongoing conversations about bringing one to the property.

Gibson said officials involved in the Gateway project met with as many as 15 prospective hotel developers over four years before choosing Sun, which has built several projects around central Indiana, including the Embassy Suites in Noblesville. He said the other firms were “unable to just meet our standards.”

He said one reason Hancock Health officials have been so choosy is because the hospital is part of the development. “It’s not a situation where we are developing 200 acres and leaving,” Gibson said. “So we’ve taken on a careful review of all the developers that have come in” on the effort.

A big boost

Kennard said many people who have expressed skepticism about the continued development of Hancock Gateway Park don’t realize the amount of growth and development happening across the county, particularly on the west side.

Companies are continuing to invest in logistics and light industrial facilities in the Mount Comfort corridor, north of I-70 near the Indianapolis Regional Airport. And the airport itself is in the middle of a master planning effort that could bring significant updates over the next few years.

Nearby McCordsville is continuing to build McCord Square, and Fortville recently completed a rebuild of its main artery, Broadway Street, with plans for additional housing that will feed Mount Vernon Schools and Hamilton Southeastern Schools.

“We’re just thinking about the growth happening here,” Kennard said. “There’s a lot going on in Hancock County.”

In addition to its work on the gateway, Hancock Health is partnering on a $48 million career education project known as Amplify Hancock. The project, which will sit just north of I-70 on a 20-acre site at the corner of West County Road 300 North and North County Road 200 West, is expected to result in continued industry growth across the county.

Matt said Gateway could benefit long term from the investment in Amplify, as it will create programs to help train workers in fields like nursing, physical therapy and occupational therapy, all of which will be in continual demand from Hancock and its partners within the park.

“It really creates a direct connection to Amplify, providing those kinds of programs for the kids coming out of high school,” he said. “Then those people would have a place to go apply their trade.”

Randy Sorrell, executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, said he sees a great deal of congruency between the gateway and Amplify projects. Most important, he said, both will lead to continued population and industry growth throughout the county.

The workforce that will be developed by Amplify is “really an amenity I sell,” Sorrell said. “I can say, ‘These are the reasons you need to be here. This is what we have, and this is what our workforce looks like now. … So if you think that we won’t have this workforce by the time you build your facility, we will.”•