Endress+Hauser planning $33M expansion in Greenwood

Endress+Hauser is planning a nearly $33 million dollar expansion on Greenwood’s south side, asking the city council for a $3.2 million tax break to help with initial costs.

The Swiss-based operating process and laboratory instrumentation and automation supplier is planning to invest about $33.1 million to build an approximately 120,000 square-foot commercial office and light industrial facility on about 35 acres of land located between U.S. 31 and Pushville and Worthsville roads. The land is located east of U.S. 31 and west of Endress+Hauser’s current Greenwood campus.

Dubbed the Endress + Hauser Innovation Center and George E. Booth Co. Headquarters, Indianapolis-based George E. Booth Co. would relocate from Indianapolis to Greenwood to share the facility with E+H, officials said during Wednesday’s city council meeting. George E. Booth Co. is the exclusive sales representative for E+H in Indiana, along with parts of Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky.

E+H officials have had an eye on the land west of their current campus for a while. The company had to decide if they would expand in Greenwood or do it at another one of their U.S. facilities, said Brandyn Ferguson, vice president of human resources for E+H.

They ultimately chose to “double down” in Greenwood and try to purchase part of the 70 acres of land west of the campus, he said. However, the land owners would only let them purchase the whole parcel, said Krista Taggart, deputy general counsel for E+H.

E+H officials weren’t in a position to purchase all 70 acres, but they were able to find a partner to help: Unicorp National Developments, Inc. The Orlando, Florida-based company and E+H are splitting the property up into roughly 35-acre sections owned by each company, Taggart said. Unicorp has developed $6 billion in commercial, residential and mixed-use projects across the U.S.

The innovation center would be built on the northeast corner of the parcel, just to the northwest of E+H’s current facilities along Worthsville Road. Unicorp has immediate plans to develop the northwestern portion of the property into retail shops and restaurants. E+H would keep the land to the south of the center for future expansions, and Unicorp would keep the rest for future developments, she said.

On the E+H side, the facility is expected to house the company’s human resources, legal and projects and solutions departments, along with an innovation center. George E. Booth Co. President Scott Young said their side of the facility would bring the company’s executive, sales, finance and human resources to Greenwood, along with a warehouse, fabrication and panel shop.

E+H’s Innovation Center — an expansion of the Innovation Studio launched last year to help with K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce development — will include a smart classroom, maker space and an outdoor STEM area, both Taggart and Ferguson said.

The Innovation Center is another way for the company to continue helping with expanding workforce development within Greenwood. The company was among the first to work with Aspire Johnson County to try to figure out a way to keep students in Greenwood and Central Indiana for workforce development, Ferguson said.

“In this new building, with the STEM innovation center, it’s just going to get even bigger,” he said.

Once constructed, the new facility would become both the first and the largest Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon building in Indiana. It has the potential to be the largest project in the U.S. to achieve LEED Gold, Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon certifications, Taggart said. LEED is an international standards organization for sustainable environmental architecture.

The building would use solar and geothermal power, use rainwater as a resource, and use special insulation to make the building as energy efficient as possible, she said.

“One of our core values as a company is sustainability,” Taggart said. “We measure things, so we’re really excited about the energy transformation and all the ways that can take us.”

Within 10 years of completion, the new facility will house 190 employees. Fifty E+H jobs would be retained, and at least 75 additional jobs would be created. The jobs would have an average annual salary of over $80,000, Taggart said.

“We expect to do that and probably more,” she said. “By moving some of us out of other buildings, this also opens up space in our other buildings for employees to go into those.”

George E. Booth Co.’s relocation would immediately bring 50 jobs to Greenwood, and create an additional 20 within the following decade, Taggart said.

To help offset the cost of the project, E+H is requesting a 10-year, approximately $3.2 million tax abatement. During the course of the abatement, the company would pay nearly $33.8 million in taxes, according to city documents.

They have also agreed to set a minimum assessed value of about $26.5 million for the property, Taggart said.

The tax break requested is not a traditional one. Most breaks usually start with 100% of taxes abated the first year, with the percentage going down to zero by year 10. E+H’s abatement would be 50% across the board, she said.

“The benefit to you all is that taxes start flowing through to the entities immediately as opposed to later years,” she said. “That can help fund some infrastructure improvements that are necessary for it.”

The developers will make several improvements to the land and nearby roads for the project. New roads would connect the facility to both Worthsville Road and U.S. 31, with the U.S. 31 connection utilizing the existing stoplight at Declaration Drive, documents show.

A frontage road and multi-purpose trail will also be built along U.S. 31. A new bridge would be built across Grassy Creek, which is one of the creeks that bisects the property, documents show.

“The idea is to create connectivity between the three parcels, and to be able to allow connectivity over the Grassy Creek Legal Drain,” Taggart said.

The request for an abatement was introduced to the city council on Wednesday. Two more readings, including a public hearing, will take place next month before a final vote.