INDIANAPOLIS-Any city’s downtown would be overwhelmed when a 404,000-square-foot corporate campus came back on the market. For a city the size of Indianapolis, with 11.5 million square of office space in its CBD and a vacancy rate of 20.3% at the end of the fourth quarter 2010, backfilling such a space seemed inconceivable.

Yet, the former Eli Lilly Faris campus at 450 S. Meridian St. has been taken off the market. Rolls-Royce – the company that makes integrated power systems and aircraft engines, not the luxury car manufacturer – signed a long-term lease to occupy the $58 million campus, which Eli Lilly vacated in December 2009 when it reduced staff and relocated 1,000 employees to other locations.

“In this market, a 10,000-square-foot office lease usually makes the list for largest deals, and sometimes we have one for 75,000 square feet,” says Michael Cook, senior vice president of UGL Services-Indianapolis. “The Rolls-Royce deal is the largest lease transaction I can remember in more than a decade.”