Hearing set for 1 project; work underway for 2nd
The Lafayette Center Road area near the General Motors plant is about to expand with GM-related industrial building projects, according to documents filed with Allen County planning and building officials.
The county plan commission next month will have a public hearing on rezoning and approving a primary development plan for an approximately 123,750-square-foot, 50-foot-high industrial building at 13624 and 13702 Lafayette Center Road.
The site, at the northeast corner of Lafayette Center and Fogwell Parkway, is proposed for a Tier 2 or Tier 3 GM supplier, according to documents submitted by the applicant.
Meanwhile, a building permit was issued last week for 12808 Stonebridge Road in the Stonebridge business park for a $15 million, 800,000-square-foot building described as a distribution center. Documents link the project to NorthPoint Development LLC, of Riverside, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.
Both projects are in Lafayette Township.
NorthPoint previously bought land and options in the shovel-ready park from the Allen County Redevelopment Commission and in June received a 10-year tax abatement. Chad Meyer, representing NorthPoint, said on Monday that ground was already broken and “walls will be going up soon.” He said the building will be finished before spring.
NorthPoint has not disclosed who would occupy the structure.
But a company representative previously said it would be a “Fortune 10 … Fortune 50” company in the automotive industry and that the name would be revealed when a lease was signed.
Indications are the lease would be with GM for a Tier 1 supplier, but Stephanie Jentgen, a GM spokeswoman, said she could not confirm that Monday.
The general contractor for the project is listed as ARCO National Construction Co. of St. Louis.
The other industrial building is proposed for 9.76 acres by P.B. Development LLC, which lists a post office box in Fort Wayne as its address. Scott Federoff, a Fort Wayne attorney representing the applicant, said he was not at liberty to say who was behind the company.
The property now has two vacant residences, and the applicant is seeking to rezone it from agricultural to general industrial because almost all the nearby properties are zoned industrial or business technology industrial.
Federoff said the building is being developed as a shell building and the developer “may or may not” have an end use in mind.
The public hearing on the property will take place at 1 p.m. Oct. 13 at Citizens Square, 200 E. Berry St.