Drive down Interstate 65 south of U.S. 30 and the landscape looks entirely different than it did a decade ago.
Hulking warehouses flank the interstate highway. Domino's, Dawn Foods, Quality Pasta and other brand names dot the sides of the gargantuan big boxes. An ocean of Amazon tractor-trailer trucks surrounds the e-commerce giant's new distribution center, believed to be the largest building ever constructed in Lake County.
South of the new Franciscan Health hospital one of Northwest Indiana's newest business parks is taking shape.
Nearly $300 million in construction is underway at the new Point 65 Business Center between 137th Avenue and 129th Avenue east of I-65 in Crown Point. CORE X CROWN just opened the first phase of a $200 million cold storage facility that will eventually employ up to 150 people distributing ice cream, TV dinners and other frozen-food products around the country. Just down the street, Arcadia Cold is building a $93 million, 294,000-square-foot warehouse in the business center.
Mississippi Parkway Partners is developing the 250-acre business park just off the U.S. 231 exit of I-65.
"Point 65 is a business park of about 250 acres, of which we sold the first phase to CORE X. They're what helped us break our ground," developer and DVG Team President Jeff Ban said. "The infrastructure has been set up to help us service another 200-plus acres. We're looking forward to being part of Northwest Indiana's growth and its industrial development growth."
CORE X CROWN built a 225,000-square-foot building. Arcadia Cold will add nearly 300,000 square feet. Ban believes about 2 million to 2.5 million square feet of buildings could be developed.
"There's enough land area to house another 2.5 million square feet," he said.
Point 65 is one of several new business parks springing up along Interstate 65, including Northwind Crossings, AmeriPlex at the Crossroads, Silos at Sanders Farms and Venture Park 65.
The new business park in Crown Point could house more cold storage warehouses and distribution centers but won't exclusively be home to such firms. It will end up being "whatever the market wants it to be," Ban said.
"We're responding to a number of inquiries from different businesses, some of which we know what they are and some of which we don't. They're confidential projects that are described by just code names," he said. "They're anything from parts suppliers to different types of industry to food manufacturing. We've had a variety of interested businesses looking at the site."
The hope is that the business park will be filled in over the next five to seven years, Ban said. Mississippi Parkway Partners is evaluating whether to build any buildings on spec or speculatively without a tenant lined up.
CORE X CROWN, Arcadia Cold and the Amazon warehouse up the street have sparked interest from the Chicago broker community.
"Everything that's going on up and down I-65 at Northwind in Hobart, AmeriPlex in Merrillville and now Point 65 in Crown Point, all those master-planned developments have drawn a lot of attention from the Chicago-area brokerage community and businesses as well as the Midwest," Ban said. "Collectively, it's the attention all of us are bringing to the Region, not just one particular site."
More logistics firms have taken interest in I-65 in Northwest Indiana after realizing it's a day's drive from much of the country's population.
"Being so close to the interstate itself links us to the entire interstate system through the United States," Ban said. "The business park has proximity to the U.S. 31 interchange off the interstate. Talking with users of real estate, it seemed there was a void in the marketplace for a business park like this."
The business park got off to a strong start with the two cold storage facilities and the developer hopes to get underway on the next projects within the next year.
"We've had some international companies look at this location," Ban said. "We're out there working with Chicago industrial brokers who have a pipeline directly to the users. There are a variety of different businesses from a variety of locations that have expressed interest."
Crown Point extended infrastructure to the business park so it could house large-footprint businesses, whether logistics or light industrial, Mayor Pete Land said.
"It's a great location right by the interchange," Land said. "The city's done a great job over the last six or seven years to get the infrastructure here to attract these types of businesses."
Crown Point extended the road and underground utilities to the site east of the interstate to bring larger businesses to town, he said.
"Having these kind of businesses is a fantastic thing for the city and the entire Region," Land said.
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