This article will help anyone looking for information pertaining to a commercial real estate and commercial lending in the State of
Indiana.
Indiana, overall, is a bright spot in the generally blighted
rust belt. Indiana is one of the more populous states in the country, and many
of those people reside in Indianapolis, the state's capital and largest city.
Indianapolis has almost 800,000 residents, making it the 12th largest city in
the country and the third largest in the Midwest. However, portions of the northwestern
part of the state lie in the Chicagoland area, so it is heavily populated, too.
Gary, Indiana (lyrically immortalized in the musical The Music Man) is located
in this area and has a little over 100,000 residents, over 80% of whom are African
American.
The northwest Chicagoland area, particularly, is primed for industrial growth
and development. The growth mostly stems from the area's proximity to
Chicago, which is still the major inland port in North America. The growth is
occurring in Indiana as opposed to Illinois because Indiana has lower labor
costs and because the state is offering significant incentives such as a 10-year
property tax abatement program and foreign trade zone status. The market is
heavily weighted towards warehouse and distribution centers rather than manufacturing.The
industrial market in Indianapolis is also strong, with submarkets focused on
manufacturing and distribution. New industrial construction and development
is underway in the Indianapolis area.
The commercial real estate market in Indianapolis, generally,
is strong. The retail market is vibrant, as new businesses open in the downtown
area. A major mixed use development is underway in downtown Indianapolis. Included
in the plans are a full-service hotel, a 5,000-seat theater, hundreds of condos
and more than a million square feet of office and retail space. The developer
hasn't released cost estimates, but has expressed little concern over what are
surely enormous development costs. The downtown Indianapolis area is prime,
but underused, real estate. Like much of the retail development in Indiana,
this project is a rehabbing of old retail property, not new construction.
The retail renaissance in downtown Indianapolis has not come
cheaply. Over the past 15 years, more than $6 billion of public and private
funds have poured into the downtown area. When all the projects are done, the
total cost for redevelopment is estimated to have costed over $9 billion. Even
so, downtown Indianapolis is rated as the third most cost-effective place in
the nation for business development. Retail and leisure spending in the downtown
area has increased by almost 300% in the last five years.