Cardinal Health to Build 575 KSF Industrial Facility in Columbus

Cardinal Health at Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park. Image courtesy of Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health has revealed plans for the development of an approximately 575,000-square-foot medical distribution center in Columbus, Ohio.

The company has teamed up with Duke Realty Corp. and its joint venture partners, Columbus Regional Airport Authority and Capitol Square, to build the facility at the 1,777-acre Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park.

The development is part of Cardinal’s multi-year strategy to accommodate growing warehousing needs in the U.S. The company alluded to the project during its second quarter of Fiscal Year 2022 earnings conference call.

“We are also focused on the modernization of our distribution facilities, including breaking ground on a new distribution center in the Midwest with nearly triple the space of the existing facility enabling future growth,” Mike Kaufmann, CEO of Cardinal Health, said during the call on February 3, 2022.

Cardinal’s current medical distribution center, located at 2320 McGaw Road in Obetz, Ohio, consists of 235,000 square feet. At Rickenbacker, the pharmaceutical manufacturer’s new facility will provide not just additional elbow room, but a premier location adjacent to the Norfolk Southern intermodal terminal and direct access to Rickenbacker International Airport. Sited roughly 10 miles from Columbus’s CBD, the Rickenbacker development will allow Cardinal to reach more than 50 percent of its U.S. customers within a day’s truck drive.

Slim pickings in Columbus

Cardinal’s decision to build its own new facility in Columbus—which has evolved into a burgeoning industrial hub over the last couple of years—was likely a preferable move compared to the tedium of shopping around for elusive state-of-the-art accommodations in the current high-demand climate. “Demand in 2021 has pushed the Columbus industrial market into ‘peak’ status with record-high absorption and a vacancy rate low enough to raise eyebrows,” according to a fourth quarter 2021 report by JLL.

That eyebrow-raising vacancy rate was just 2.2 percent at the close of 2021, and the modern bulk vacancy rate was at a record low of 2.9 percent. “Total vacancy across the market is still unlikely to rise to 5 percent in 2022 due to anticipated tenant demand,” according to the JLL report. Additionally, total net absorption climbed to a total of 15 million square feet in 2021 amid 11.2 million square feet of construction completions.

Cardinal expects its new medical distribution center to be up and running by late 2022 or early 2023. The company has tapped Red Architecture + Planning to spearhead the design of the project.