Miami County shell building attracting interest from companies

At least, that’s what Miami County officials hope will happen with their new $2.75 million shell building located at Grissom Aeroplex’s South Industrial Park, located near Grissom Air Reserve Base.

The Miami County council approved funding for the project in 2015 after learning the county didn’t have any buildings available to attract new businesses. Construction began in June on the facility and wrapped up late last year.

Now, the shell building is living up to its name. Walk through the glass doors, and you’re greeted by a vacuous space that contains only a gravel floor and some support columns. Four docking stations sit on the north side of the structure. A few lights are scattered around the ceiling.

But Jim Tidd, executive director of the Miami County Economic Development Authority, said the facility is doing exactly what it was intended to – provide the shell of a building that can then be tailored and personalized to meet the specific needs of potential companies who want to move in.

“You want to give them something to work with, but you don’t put in the specifics that the company would need,” he said. “You want to make it as universal as possible and attractive to a variety of end users. You don’t want to make it so specific that you’re limiting yourself on a particular industry.”

Shell buildings have caught on over the decades as a popular economic-development tool to attract new business and industries to an area. Tidd said that’s because research has shown that 70 percent of companies looking to expand or relocate want to move into a pre-existing building.

“When they’re ready to pull the trigger and move forward on a project, they don’t have a year or two to start that process from the ground up,” he said. “They can’t wait to find the land, do the design and put out bids. This is helping them expedite that whole process.”

The county’s shell building offers 57,600 square feet of space, 32-foot-high ceilings and sits on 20 acres of land, which allows the facility to be expanded up to 240,000 square feet.

Tidd said those specifications were chosen after researching what most manufacturing and distribution companies want in a building.

The county currently owns the facility and is required to pay $95,000 for the first three years, and around $203,000 every year after that until the building is sold.

Now, officials are working to sell or lease the facility as soon as possible to get out from under the payments. Tidd said the prospect of that happening is looking good.

Since construction wrapped up on the project, the county has been able to respond to 11 business leads looking for a pre-existing building. Those leads have led to on-site visits from three different companies, which are all now considering the facility for development.

Tidd said one of those companies is considering expanding the building to its maximum size and creating up to 300 jobs there.

Even with companies showing interest, the county still runs the risk that the building could sit empty for years before it’s purchased. That happened with a similar project in 2000 when the county donated land and helped a developer pay for the construction of a shell building.

The facility sat empty for six years before it was eventually purchased by Discount Tire, which expanded the structure and now employs around 135 people.

Tidd said even though that building didn’t sell right away, it brought three other companies to the county to look at it, and all three companies ended up expanding to other locations in the county. Discount Tire is also now a major employer in the area.