Location, location, logistics: Hendricks County has 24 million square feet of distribution space and counting.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: CentraLogistics development

WITH THE JANUARY announcement that Plainfield will soon be home to the 807-acre, 11-milion-square-foot CentraLogistics Industrial Park, it's understandable why the Indianapolis Private Industry Council Inc. is citing logistics as a strong component of central Indiana's economy.

Some 41,000 workers are already on the payroll at more than 1,300 logistics and distributions facilities in central Indiana, the industry council reports. And it's projecting an increase to 50,000 employees by 2012.

The $700 million CentraLogistics development by Browning Investments of Indianapolis could mean another 4,000 new jobs, the company says.

Hendricks County already has some 24 million square feet of distribution space, all built since 1994, says Harold Gutzwiller, executive director of Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership.

"I think it will happen," he says of the newest park. "Browning Investments was able to secure options on all that property, and it's in an excellent location."

And that announcement comes on top of what he was already calling "a tremendous year" in 2005.

His recent tallies include welcoming 200 Rolls Royce engine design personnel who took half of the former Galyan's facility in Plainfield, and two...