The Hobart City Council granted a 10-year tax abatement for Becknell Industrial’s proposal to build a 356,000-square-foot, four-building structure at its Oct. 7 meeting.
In throwing his support behind the project, Mayor Josh Huddlestun said that the Northwind North Industrial Park will bring family wage employment to the city.
“It’s another investment in our community,” he said. “Opportunities for employment and putting people to work in good union jobs matters to our residents. It’s also a location that was challenging to develop from an infrastructure standpoint.”
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The property involves 26.78 acres at the corner of 61st Avenue and Liverpool Road. The total construction cost is $56 million, and the developers expect it will result in 150 construction jobs plus 330 full-time jobs once completed.
Becknell previously agreed with the verbiage from the Hobart Plan Commission to strike out any plans for a data center and to work with staff on screenings and landscaping of the property.
Northwind North Industrial Park is a speculative development, as the prospective tenants are currently unknown. The Plan Commission previously accommodated the LaGrange, Illinois-based company by granting a rezoning request to accommodate the light industrial development. The buildings within the structure include two that will be 83,166 square feet and two that are 95,046 square feet.
The development will be located north of the existing NorthWind Crossings, Becknell Industrial’s 200-acre business park, located southeast of Interstate 65 and 61st Avenue.
“NorthWind has been a huge success and this (Northwind North Industrial Park) is an extension of that,” Huddlestun said.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.