Original article from the Louisville Business First

A St. Louis-based real estate developer is going big for its first project in the Louisville area.

US Capital Development will purchase 37.4 acres inside the 6,000-acre River Ridge Commerce Center in Southern Indiana. The negotiated purchase price is $2.8 million.

The property is located on River Ridge Parkway near Trey Street, and US Capital intends to construct a 450,000-square-foot speculative industrial building on the site, the company said in a news release.

US Capital said the Class A development could eventually create hundreds of jobs for the region.

“Louisville is a very attractive real estate market, and River Ridge has everything we look for in a development site,” Scott Sachtleben, managing principal for US Capital Development, said in the news release. “It’s a world-class business park with a great location, easy interstate access to key markets throughout the country and modern infrastructure to support numerous types of companies. We couldn’t be happier with the new location.”

Sachtleben said the company had been scouting and evaluating the Louisville and Southern Indiana market for nearly a year when it chose this site for development. The company looks at primary and secondary markets near logistics hubs for developments like this one.

Construction costs were not disclosed, but the company hopes to complete the building by late summer 2021, the release said.

“It’s great to have another experienced developer coming to River Ridge and reinforcing what we already know — this is a great place to do business,” Jerry Acy, executive director of River Ridge, said in the release. “US Capital Development has a track record of success and recognizes the value we offer here in Southern Indiana.”

US Capital also has a local tie. Jim White, the firm’s managing director for its national development platform, spent more than a dozen years working on industrial projects in the Louisville area prior to joining the company.

“Having developed in Louisville in the past, I’ve seen that Louisville has certainly come into its own as a location with proven logistics-centric underpinnings,” White said in the release. “Our first starter-kit project serves to be a perfect fit for our expanding regional and national development initiatives. This is a great time to be building for the future, and this is the right place to do it.”

This deal comes after Louisville Business First reported last month that Tennessee based Kenco Logistic Services LLC has opened a fulfillment and distribution center at River Ridge. Kenco said it is leasing a 250,000-square-foot complex at 201 River Ridge Parkway.

“With this new facility, our customers will be able to access more of their growing customer base with increased ease,” said Dan Coll, vice president of e-commerce fulfillment at Kenco. “We are excited to present these advantages to businesses as they look to adjust to the ever-changing e-commerce environment.”

River Ridge Commerce Center is now home to more than 60 companies that employ more than 10,000 workers. The massive business park set a new economic record in 2019 by producing an estimated total of $2.5 billion in economic output last year. That number is based on the total value of transactions from the center last year.