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A proposed 2,000-acre real estate project along Interstate 65 in Lebanon from the developer behind Grand Park and Bridgewater could increase the Boone County city’s population by 50% if it comes to fruition.
Westfield-based Henke Development Group, led by Steve Henke, is seeking approval from the city for a master-planned community with retail stores, apartments, an industrial park, a golf course and hundreds of homes roughly bordered by County Road 100 South, CR 300 South, CR 400 East and the interstate.
If approved by the city council on Feb. 10, the project could be built over the next two decades.
“This is a transcendent project,” Mayor Matt Gentry said in written comments. “We are so thankful to Mr. Henke and the development team for their tireless effort and their willingness to invest in our great city.”
Ben Bontrager, planning director for the city of Lebanon, said Henke’s plans to phase up to 3,000 new residential units could add as many as 8,000 new residents to the city of about 16,000 in the next few years.
“Probably the next-largest project we have is the Lebanon Business Park,” Bontrager said.
That 1,250-acre business park housing several large-scale manufacturers is just west of I-65, between State Road 32 and State
Road 39. Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry has, in the past, pointed to the development as a way to attract major food and manufacturing companies.
Bontrager said the Waterford development, however, is being planned with a golf course and its surrounding residential community at its center.
Though a proposed village center would bring mixed-use retail and residential buildings to the project’s east side, additional commercial buildings and industrial uses would be built closer to the interstate.
He said it’s definitely the city’s goal to attract advanced manufacturing, technology, and research and development uses to the industrial park. However, Henke’s master plans are very preliminary. If the land uses are approved, Henke will have to file more specific standards for each section in the project, Bontrager said.
The first of those plans will likely come before the city in late summer, he said, when builders or other developers who are working on the project are also announced.
At this point, they’re just cornfields,” Bontrager said. “There’s not a whole lot to invest in yet.”
In addition to Grand Park Sports Complex in Westfield and Bridgewater in Carmel and Westfield, Henke’s other developments include Holliday Farms in Zionsville and Chatham Hills in Westfield.
Representatives from Henke Development did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
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