VanTrust to build new industrial park in Rickenbacker
By Terry Troy
Commercial real estate developer VanTrust Real Estate is breaking ground on a one million square-foot speculative warehouse in the Village of Commercial Point near Rickenbacker International Airport. Located at the intersection of Highway 104 and Highway 762, the project will be the first building built on 178 acres acquired by VanTrust earlier this year from K-Nova LLC.
The building will be the largest speculative warehouse in the Rickenbacker sub-market and one of the largest in the region. The master-planned industrial park will be known as Rickenbacker Exchange at Commercial Point, and will encompass more than 900 acres of shovel-ready logistics and manufacturing ground. Van Trust’s acquisition can accommodate an additional 1.2 million square feet of warehouses. Adding to the exceptional location is the development’s attractive incentive package, in which all buildings will receive a 15-year, 100 percent real estate tax abatement.
“We’re excited to further expand in the Rickenbacker area as we continue to see a strong demand for distribution centers in Central Ohio,” said Andy Weeks, executive vice president in VanTrust’s Columbus office. “The one million square-foot building will be especially attractive to companies driven by e-commerce that do a large volume of online business. We anticipate that this development at Commercial Point will bring hundreds of job opportunities to the region.”
Jack Tzagournis of Fortress Real Estate Companies worked with K-Nova LLC during the successful entitlement process and sale of the site to VanTrust.
“We have seen tremendous interest in the balance of the land and believe this will be a very successful industrial park for years to come,” Tzagournis said.
Pepper Ohio, a subsidiary of Pepper Construction Group, is in charge of construction, with RED Architecture handling the design. Michael Linder of Colliers International in Columbus is the listing agent.
“Here in Commercial Point, we are looking forward to working with all of the parties involved to help bring this development to northern Pickaway County,” said Allan Goldhardt, mayor of Commercial Point. “We currently have more than six hundred homes slated to be built within one mile of the industrial park, thus providing an excellent workforce for the development. The Village is also in the process of building new utility plants to provide the proper infrastructure needed for a development of this size. We couldn’t be more pleased to have the opportunity to have a development of this caliber in our Village.”
The first building at Rickenbacker Exchange at Commercial Point marks VanTrust’s eighth speculative industrial building in Central Ohio. Previous developments include four in the Rickenbacker area, one in Grove City, and one in New Albany, with a second 253,000 square- foot building to be delivered in December 2020. In addition, the Columbus VanTrust development team is managing a number of projects throughout the region, including a 700,000 square-foot building presently under construction in Louisville, and two industrial buildings under construction in Indianapolis.