SOUTHERN INDIANA — A real estate company previously focused in the Louisville and Lexington markets has expanded to Southern Indiana, and in a big way.
"I truly feel that we're getting in on the ground floor of something that's going to be very, very special," Brandon Denton, co-owner of Denton Floyd Real Estate Group, said.
The real estate group just began spreading its reach to Southern Indiana within the last year or so, and now it already has six projects underway.
Four of those projects are in Jeffersonville — two restaurants called Parlour and Portage House downtown, an apartment complex off Holman Lane and a commercial development north of Interstate 265.
Denton Floyd is also developing M. Fine Village, an assisted living facility in New Albany, and an apartment complex in Sellersburg.
The real estate group's recent interest in Clark and Floyd counties is part of a larger trend, economic development experts say, of outside developers profiting from a promise of growth.
"When you have folks who are establishing themselves in an area to the extent that these guys are, they're investing a lot of money in a short amount of time based on something more than hope," Wendy Dant Chesser, CEO and president of One Southern Indiana, said. "They wouldn't get the financing for all these projects, they wouldn't be able to diversify all that they're doing, and they wouldn't be able to carry though ... if there wasn't a legitimate opportunity in [Southern Indiana]."
River Ridge Commerce Center and its massive growth is what first caught Denton Floyd's attention to the region north of the Ohio River.
"That's going to carry over to more need for housing," Denton said. He sees potential in Southern Indiana, more so than in the "over saturated" Louisville market.
"I think there's more opportunity for urban living, which is what most millennials are migrating toward these days," he said.
Although the group mainly focuses on multi-family housing, developers know that an increase in population also drives the demand for commercial amenities.
As Denton Floyd's largest footprint in Jeffersonville, the group sees a chance to collaborate with city leaders.
"We want to be very, very involved and help assist in the city's goals in handling and taking advantage of the extreme growth," Denton said.
As companies at places like River Ridge continue to locate in Jeffersonville, a demand for more housing and more amenities increases, Dant Chesser said.
In turn, those amenities attract even more people to live across the river who want to be a part of it.
That part of the cycle is what Dant Chesser and others are counting on, as a lack of a skilled workforce is one barrier to growth in Southern Indiana.
Two major prospects recently pulled out of the region specifically because they were worried the workforce just isn't there, Dant Chesser said.
"All of these types of activity [like Denton Floyd developments] will help us solve that workforce issue on quality of place to attract that workforce," she said.