$110M residential project in works near battery plants

An Indianapolis-based developer has broken ground on a $110 million mixed-use project in Kokomo, just a few blocks south of the $7.5 billion battery facilities under development by a joint venture between car maker Stellantis NV and Samsung SDI.

The project, known as The Hub District, is expected to consist of town houses, retail space, a hotel and more than 500 apartments on a 26-acre site at 2290 N. Cooper St. The project, which has received extensive city support, is being led by Premier Hospitality, which has developed multiple hotel and residential properties across central Indiana.

The Hub will include 28 townhomes with up to five bedrooms and two-car garages, a 120-room Hyatt Studio Hotel, 66,000 square feet of retail and outdoor space, and a 504-unit apartment complex. It will also offer walking paths that connect directly to the battery facilities that are now under construction.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Energy said it has committed up to $7.5 million in loans for the electric vehicle battery plants, which are expected to employ at least 2,800 people after they fully open in 2027. The plants are expected to produce enough batteries to supply about 670,000 vehicles per year.

While that deal hasn’t been finalized, the joint venture between Netherlands company Stellantis and South Korea’s Samsung—together known as StarPlus Energy LLC—would receive $6.85 billion in principal funding, as well as $688 million in interest.

Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore said he is confident the residential project will help Kokomo support not only development at the battery facilities but other anticipated investments that could come in the next few years from suppliers for the factories.

“Housing is a need and an issue, so to have this development break ground today and get started not only helps us address that with the influx of workers that are anticipated … but provides that mixed-use component that we expect many of the Korean nationals to embrace as well, since the desire to live in a community type of setting is within reach,” he said.

The project is being supported by the city through a single-site tax-increment financing district that will allow the capture of property tax revenue. It will also receive a $5 million forgivable loan and $500,000 in infrastructure funding.

“Having this as a part of that overall [StarPlus] district and footprint is definitely a benefit to the community,” Moore said, “especially sparking some investment on the north end of Kokomo, when a lot of attention has been given to the south end because of its close proximity to the doughnut communities of Indianapolis.”

Rocky Singh, owner of Premier Hospitality, said a portion of the project is already underway—14 of the townhouses are already completed and being rented by those involved in the battery project, with the other half of those units set to start in the coming weeks.

Kokomo “deserves more attention,” he said because of the concentration of manufacturing that it offers and its proximity to both Indianapolis and Chicago.

“Most of the attention has been on the north side of Indianapolis and in Lebanon,” Singh said. “Our project is going to highlight that this is a [good] place to live. This is what high-quality living looks like. So that’s what we are focusing on: providing that environment where people would like to come in today and find a house and make it their home.”