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NorthPoint II, a proposed 180-acre business park in Westfield, received final approval Monday night from the Westfield City Council after about four years of debate and negotiations.
City councilors voted 7-0 to rezone the property for the project, which is planned near State Road 38 and Hinkle Road on the city’s rural northeast side.
South Bend-based Holladay Properties plans to file a detailed development plan for about 169 acres in late 2024 or early 2025 and begin construction in the middle of 2025, according to documents filed with the city. The remainder of the land on the western edge of the site will feature a tree preservation area to provide a buffer for neighboring residents.
Holladay plans to invest $16 million in the initial development phase. The project is expected to have an assessed value of $175 million when completed and generate an estimated annual commercial tax revenue of $5.2 million, according to the city.
City Council President Patrick Tamm said the project is necessary for Westfield to diversify its tax base, which is tilted heavily toward owner-occupied homes, and provide land for companies looking for a place to build.
“To be very frank, if you’re trying to bring a business, a company into Westfield, we have nothing available at this time,” he said during discussion before Monday’s vote. “We’ve missed out on significant investment during an unbelievable period of the state’s growth where there’s been billions upon billions upon billions of dollars worth of commercial investment.”
A state constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2010 caps property tax bills at 1% of assessed value for owner-occupied homes. Property taxes on commercial development, however, are generally capped at 3% of assessed value, making that land more valuable to local governments trying to provide services for residents.
Mayor Scott Willis has made NorthPoint II a priority early in his first term because he said Westfield needs the project to be competitive.
He pointed to Noblesville’s Innovation Mile and the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon as examples of what Westfield needs to work toward: having land ready with infrastructure, utilities and water so companies can build quickly.
“It is absolutely imperative,” Willis said Monday night. “We’re going to stabilize our economy in Westfield and lower taxes per residence. We need this kind of project, plain and simple.”
Holladay reintroduced NorthPoint II early this year after the developer withdrew the project in 2022 following two years of resistance from neighbors.
Bastian Solutions, a Carmel-based subsidiary of Japan-based Toyota Industries Corp., had planned to build a corporate campus at NorthPoint II. Instead, the company announced last year it would move its corporate headquarters and build a huge manufacturing plant at a $130 million campus in Noblesville.
Willis held community meetings beginning late last year between residents and representatives from Holladay to work through differences and bring the project back to life.
Among the changes to the original plan is a 10-acre tree preservation area on the west side of the property to serve as a buffer between NorthPoint II and residents’ homes. Holladay will also provide a $70,000 stipend, or $10,000 each, to seven nearby residents on Anthony Road to use for landscaping purposes.
The NorthPoint II project will be Holladay’s second major business park endeavor in Westfield. The developer in 2018 opened NorthPoint Industrial Park along U.S. 31 and East 196th Street.
Its first tenant was Bastian Solutions, which moved into a 140,000-square-foot building. Gordon Food Service and Abbott Laboratories committed to moving into 500,000- and 120,000-square-foot buildings, respectively, the following year to round out the park’s “big three” occupants.
Westfield-based specialty contracting firm Browning Chapman opened a 65,000-square-foot office and warehouse building in NorthPoint in 2019. Holladay in May 2021 announced plans to spend $25.5 million to build three new speculative distribution buildings.
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Whatever happened to the Gordon Foodservice building a distribution facility in Westfield?