A growing Greenwood business is looking to expand its footprint with a multi-million-dollar expansion and bring about 150 new jobs to the city.
Peterman Brothers, a heating, plumbing and air conditioning company, plans to build an additional, 54,000-square-foot building at its current location in the Precedent South Business Center, just east of the Interstate 65 and Main Street interchange. The project would cost $6.5 million, and when it is completed next June, will include a new warehouse and a trade school, according to city documents. Peterman Brothers was previously known as Peterman Heating, Cooling and Plumbing prior to a name change this year.
The expansion would add about 150 new employees and pay them $22 an hour. Peterman Brothers has already purchased the adjacent land for the project, said Amanda Rubadue, Aspire Johnson County’s vice president of economic development.
Peterman officials came before the Greenwood City Council Monday to request a three-year, $220,000 real property tax break for the project. If approved, the company would still pay $110,038 in taxes over the next three years, according to city documents.
The company requested the abatement to help finance the project and pave a path toward future growth and job creation. Peterman has been in business since 1986, city documents show.
The important part of the project is not the new jobs itself, but rather how Peterman Brothers will be adding a majority of them. More than 15,000 square feet of the project will be for a trade school, dubbed the Peterman Top Tech Academy, said Chad Peterman, president and CEO.
At the academy, they will train their own technicians and others about the trades. It is a five-to six-month program during which Peterman Brothers pays students to learn, then puts them out into the field to serve their customers, Peterman said.
“Currently we have 17 students — 10 HVAC students and seven plumbing students — who will hit the ground running here in November,” he said. “They’ll work November, December (and) January, they’ll come back in for another month of training and then (they) will be out in the field permanently.”
The academy began last October, and is run out of Peterman Brothers’ previous facility near Stop 11 Road and Emerson Avenue in Indianapolis. The tax break would allow the company to move the school to its Greenwood facility after the next class graduates, Peterman said.
“(It will) hopefully provide not only jobs, but skilled jobs for the community in both Greenwood and the surrounding areas,” he said.
The expansion is a good thing for the city of Greenwood, said Bradley Pendleton, a city council member.
“I think this is awesome. This is the kind of stuff I like to see coming for us,” Pendleton said.
Peterman Brothers previously received a five-year tax break in 2019, as the company moved its operations to Greenwood from the southside of Indianapolis. The 2018 tax break was for $122,000, and the company is expected to pay about $74,000 in property taxes. All of the money from the tax break flowed into the city’s east side TIF, or tax increment financing district.
The proposed tax break for the expansion would flow into the same TIF district as well. The Greenwood Redevelopment Commission unanimously approved it Oct. 12.
Earlier this month, Peterman Brothers was ranked 22nd on the Indianapolis Business Journal’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing companies in the Indianapolis area, Fast 25. This is the third year in a row the company has had a spot on the list. Revenue grew by 88% from 2018 to 2020, to $29.6 million, according to IBJ.
The proposed tax abatement will be discussed at the city council’s next meeting Nov. 1, with a final vote to take place Nov. 15.
