INDIANAPOLIS—The US has few hotter industrial markets than Indianapolis, where cheap land and access to a network of roads and air travel has combined to help make it a burgeoning hub for distribution and logistics firms. Many developers have been putting up new buildings on spec, and institutional investors have followed in their wake.

Chambers Street Properties, a real estate investment trust in Princeton, NJ, for example, just completed the $30.2 million purchase of 445 Airtech Parkway, a 622,440-square-foot warehouse and distribution property developed by Prologis/Browning Investments in suburban Plainfield's AirTech Business Park. The partners finished it just last year, the first speculative industrial development in Indianapolis since 2008, and Hartz Mountain Corp., a pets product supplier, quickly signed a triple net lease for the entire space.

"Having a long-term lease in place with a solid tenant makes this acquisition an exceptional addition to our portfolio," says Philip L. Kianka, executive vice president and CEO of Chambers Street.

The property features 32' clear height and 60 truck doors with knockout panels and an adjacent land parcel suitable for up to a 227,000-square-foot expansion of the building.

Plainfield, just southwest of Indianapolis, has seen the most activity in the metro area. Currently, developers have more than 1.6-million-square-feet of speculative bulk projects underway, according to a recent report from Colliers. "The break-neck pace of speculative bulk development continues, showing little sign of abatement this year."

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Brian J. Rogal

Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.