Real estate update: leading office and industrial parks.

• Author: Dunlap, Phil
• Position: Indiana

Office and industrial parks are on the rise in Indiana. Many these days are the provinces of a single development company or government agency overseeing the infrastructure in order to achieve a uniform, ordered appearance. Such a community look is finding a receptive audience with more and more tenants.

Following are details of some of the most prominent projects identified by Indiana real-estate experts.

AMERIPLEX

One of the state's largest new business parks is Ameriplex, the brainchild of Holladay Partners Midwest. The 1,500-acre site is located between State Road 67 and Interstate 70, just south of the Indianapolis International Airport. Although the complex currently is accessed from State Road 67, it will have its own interchange off I-70 in the future.

Of the four planned development phases, the 300-acre Phase One is now open, with infrastructure complete. So far about 800,000 square feet of buildings are finished or nearly finished. Duracell Batteries moved into a 180,000-square-foot distribution building in early July. Hirara Corp. of America recently finished a second site.

A unique feature of the master plan is a series of lakes sprinkled throughout the park, providing drainage as well as fire-protection backup. Every site has the capability of an "EFSR" sprinkler system, the latest in fire safety.

AIRWEST BUSINESS PARK

In Plainfield, Denison Properties' Airwest Business Park has 700 acres under ownership and active development. Airwest has seen the completion of 3.5 million square feet of industrial and distribution space by Fortune 500 companies, as well as institutional investors. Presently, the CTI/John Deere building is the largest finished structure at around 930,000 square feet.

Conway Central Express has a hub at Airwest, and Pep Boys just bought a 400,000-square-foot building for auto-parts distribution. Currently, Dermody Properties and Opus North Corp. have in excess of 1 million square feet of speculative space under construction.

BAER FIELD INDUSTRIAL PARK

Much of the current industrial development in Fort Wayne is taking place here. With good access to Interstate 469 and the city's airport, it's a prime location for businesses that rely heavily on transportation links.

Among the new or ongoing developments, GE Transportation Systems has a 100,000-square-foot building, and Fort Wayne Metals and Gildea Tool have new buildings of 50,000 and 25,000 square feet, respectively. Local real-estate executives say more deals are in the works.

BLACKTHORN CORPORATE PARK

South Bend's Blackthorn Corporate Park is unique in that a portion of it is built around a highly ranked golf course, which opened...