Mohr Capital Breaks Ground on 1 MSF Facility in Indianapolis

Rendering of upcoming Cooper Tires facility in Whiteland, Ind. Image courtesy of Mohr Capital

Mohr Capital, of Dallas, has broken ground on a 1 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility for Cooper Tires in Whiteland, Ind. Gary Horn, chief investment officer for Mohr Capital, told Commercial Property Executive that the capital investment in the property exceeds $50 million.

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Cooper Tires is North America’s fifth-largest tire manufacturer and focuses primarily on passenger car and light vehicle replacement tires. The new development will coincide with Cooper Tires’ relocation from its current 807,000-square-foot distribution center in Franklin, Ind. Both locations are just west of I-65, roughly 20 miles south of Indianapolis, in the 11-county metro area.

Horn said in a prepared statement that the Franklin facility was undersized and needed additional trailer parking, prompting the development of a larger facility. Mark Writt, a senior vice president with CBRE, assisted Mohr Capital with the land acquisition and in working with local officials to address any potential concerns.

Pepper Construction, Curran Architects and American StructurePoint, the latter two both based in Indianapolis, will be designing and building the distribution center. The development is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

So far, so good

At the onset of the pandemic, the Indianapolis industrial market was seeing a good balance between strong demand for large distribution space (from both consumer goods and e-commerce–based companies), a record level of new product and “solid net absorption numbers,” according to a first-quarter report from Avison Young. Absorption over the first quarter totaled about 3.9 million square feet, while another 9.8 million square feet of space was in the construction pipeline.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the market was facing difficulties in the form of rising construction costs and labor supply challenges. Still, the overall direct vacancy was about 4.4 percent, deal velocity has remained strong, and the average triple-net asking rental rate is $3.88 per square foot, also according to Avison Young.

Speaking of deal velocity, in January, Founders Properties purchased a 519,100-square-foot industrial property in Indianapolis from a joint venture between Transwestern Investment Group and Acento Real Estate Partners. And in late May, Black Creek Group acquired a new 690,700-square-foot industrial facility in Brownsburg, Ind., from Washington Capital Management.