Incentives are on the way now for two industrial developments at Whiteland’s Interstate 65 interchange.
The Whiteland Town Council last week voted unanimously to add the Mohr Logistics Park property to the town’s Economic Revitalization Area.
Plans for the logistics park were controversial, drawing more than a hundred area residents this year to Whiteland Plan Commission and town council meetings.
The development was initially pitched as a 338-acre project by Texas-based developer Mohr Capital. But the more controversial half of the development proposed on land owned by Bright Farms was withdrawn in October.
The temporarily whittled down project includes three to four industrial buildings on 184 acres. Project boundaries are Tracy Road to the north, Whiteland Road to the south, Interstate 65 to the east and County Road 225 East to the west.
The town council’s move to add the property to the Economic Revitalization Area opened the door to property tax breaks and set the stage for a proposed abatement covering all buildings planned in the initial phase of the Mohr development.
The council approved that abatement for Mohr Logistics Park’s first phase at the same meeting last week.
Mohr intends to spend $111.9 million to build up to four buildings with a total of about 2.8 million to 3.06 million rentable square feet, as well as various supporting infrastructure including roadways, parking areas, ponds, and landscaping, according to the abatement application on file with the town.
During the course of the 10-year abatement, an estimated $17.1 million taxes will be collected across four buildings, and $14.5 million will be abated. The buildings are expected to be built between 2021 and 2024 and be fully operational by 2025.
The abatement was designed to encompass all buildings to simplify the incentive approval process and allow the developer to begin work on buildings sooner, said Norm Gabehart, town manager. The town will be more likely to snag good opportunities with speculative buildings, he said.
“Part of being in the game is having available square footage … It is imperative to make sure these advance if you’re going to have opportunities,” Gabehart said.
Town officials are confident the incentives will pay off by netting full occupancy of Mohr’s first phase in just a few years. The Whiteland Exchange Business Park, the town’s inaugural industrial park that is now home to an Amazon distribution center, will be occupied fully by the two-year mark, he said.
Depending on which companies are attracted to the park, the number of buildings may vary, Gabehart said.
The town is on a shortlist for an undisclosed well-known company that would need an 800,000-square-foot building that is expandable to 1.3 million square feet. If that company picks Whiteland, the first phase would include three buildings, not four, he said.
Another abatement was approved in October for one of the final buildings in the Whiteland Exchange. A series of tax breaks have been approved for the developer, Jones Development, of Kansas City, Mo., which has brought projects forward to the town in the master-planned businesses park.
The Whiteland Exchange will have a total of five warehouses. Amazon, the flagship tenant, began operations this year. Now, several other buildings are under construction or in the works, Gabehart said.
The most recent abatement was awarded to Jones to move a manufacturing warehouse closer to its Franklin plant, he said, adding that the company was not ready to announce the move publicly. As was the case with Cooper Tire, which announced earlier this year it would be Mohr’s first building project in Whiteland, another company is relocating to Whiteland because it has outgrown its current space, he said.
Jones is investing $8.6 million in the 179,500-square-foot building and $324,000 in the land. During the course of the 10-year abatement, $1.08 million in taxes will be paid, and nearly $916,500 will be abated.
The Whiteland Exchange abatement is finalized, but the Mohr Logistics abatement has one more step to complete in January, when the council will consider a confirmatory resolution to seal the deal.
