A rendering of the second building in Core5’s project.
Photo provided by Core5
Because of primarily economic conditions, the completion of a Whiteland industrial project is being delayed with its tax abatement intact.
The Whiteland Town Council approved pushing back the completion date for Core5 Industrial Partners’ project by two years to October 2026. The original completion date for the project’s second building was slated for April 2024.
“So, we really wanted to come before you today before you ever were wondering where a second building was, to be frank there, or … whether you had any questions about building No. 2,” said Kyle Resetarits, Core5’s attorney, at the town council meeting April 9.
The project is called the C5 I-65 Park South Logistics Center at 186 Bob Glidden Blvd., according to the company’s website.
The second building is fully designed with building pad and site utilities in place and is “footing ready,” said Doug Armbruster, senior vice president and managing director of Core5. The reason for the postponement is problems with the market because ” the vacancy’s too high to justify starting a new project,” he said.
Core5 came before the council 11 days after the second building’s original estimated completion date, council member Joseph Sayler said at the meeting.
“Your SB-1 came to us after you blew the deadline and it makes it kind of apparent, to me, that you’re not particularly concerned about complying with the SB-1,” Sayler said, “because you’re just gonna come in and say, ‘Oh no, you gotta give us an extension.’ What’s very different is if you have a deadline that is approaching and you’re not gonna be able to meet it, for whatever reason, and you come and say, ‘Hey, not gonna be able to make that work with me.’”
Sayler recommended the completion date be postponed to October 2026 to give the company the summer months to build.
“I haven’t heard any kind of commitment that you would adhere to the next set of timeline …,” council member Brad Goedeker said. “As far as I can tell, the proposal is a completely indefinite series of events where we give you guys the incredible tax abatement schedule that we offered up at the beginning and then you’re not following that and you’re just asking for a continued, unlimited future until you’re satisfied with the way the market works.”
For the first building in the project, Core5 said at the meeting that they completed it 3-5 months prior to its deadline.
A portion of the town council meeting was dedicated to determining how the council will respond to extensions to tax-abated projects in the future. Council member Tim Brown said he is a proponent of equal treatment for all companies asking for a timeline extension, but Sayler said it should be determined on a case-by-case basis based on the facts of a situation.
Despite the council’s conversation, it unanimously approved Core5’s amended SB-1.
“The town and Core5 will enjoy the benefits of building one and the estimates we provided are being exceeded or will likely be exceeded given the construction costs and the success or hopeful success of building one,” Resetarits said. “We anticipate the same for building two.”
