Business-condo complex to double in size

A local developer has purchased land adjacent to the long-stalled Promise Road Business Park in Fishers and plans to invest around $5 million to roughly double the size of the complex of business condos.

Doug Martin wasn’t the first to imagine small, for-sale, commercial flex spaces at 12502-12526 Promise Creek Lane, a complex at 126th Street and Interstate 69. A previous developer, Patrick R. Verble & Associates Inc., built the business park’s first two buildings in 2006 and 2007 and sold some of the units. The company got as far as installing pads for two more business condo buildings before the expansion went belly up in 2008 and Verble lost the property.

The complex was in limbo for a couple of years before First Financial Collateral Inc. took control and hired a broker to sell the remaining units, an effort that took off after improvements were made to adjacent 126th Street in 2012.

Those improvements along with an improved economy convinced Martin to purchase the property’s vacant 6.5 acres in Oct. 2019 to build 38 new storefronts along I-69. Martin said the first phase is sold out and buyers are already lining up for units in the next phase.

“We learned a few lessons from the previous ones on the sizes of the suites and a few other things,” Martin said. “We have Building 3 virtually sold out and half of Building 4 spoken for.”

Construction of the newest 26,400-square-foot building is scheduled to begin in March. Building 3 will feature 20 spaces ranging in size from 1,260- to 1,575-square-feet, and Martin expects tenants will be able to move-in by the end of June. Unit prices start at $150,000. Martin didn’t reveal the project cost.

Paul Dick, a senior vice president with Resource Commercial Real Estate who sold the original units and is marketing the expansion, said construction of 18 additional units in Building 4 will start in May or June. Those 1,300- to 1,625-square-foot spaces will have frontage on I-69, Dick said, meaning nearly 80,000 cars will pass by every day. That building is slightly smaller, with a total footprint of 24,700-square-feet.

“There’s little to no flex inventory in Fishers. If you want to go out and lease something like that, you’re going to have a hard time finding it,” Dick said.

Though a variety of businesses make up the first two buildings—tech marketing, financial planning, landscaping, insurance, medical services—the “four walls, a floor and a ceiling” each unit provides allows for a variety of other uses. A small church and an exercise facility also own space in the original buildings, Dick said.

“It’s about trying to strip out everything and give people a shell they can have different uses for,” Dick said.  “It’s a basic product. You can do what you want with it. The utility is just endless. ”

By keeping individual units small, businesses that are just starting out can avoid years of paying rent in exchange for paying down the mortgage on an asset.

“Hamilton County is primarily made up of small businesses, and this gives a lot of businesses the opportunity to own their own real estate,” Dick said. “This really complements the mayor’s vision of taking businesses from working at the kitchen table, to Launch Fishers, to coming out here.”