A 26,600-square-foot speculative building is coming south of CR 1000N and north of Deaton’s Waterfront Services in Fortville.
Submitted image
FORTVILLE – A Fortville businessman plans to add a move-in-ready building to the property he recently moved his waterfront equipment company to.
The 26,600-square-foot structure is going north of the new 20,000-square-foot-building that now houses Deaton’s Waterfront Services at 3253 W. CR 1000N.
“This is something we kind of thought about doing all along when we bought this piece of ground anyhow – bring a couple more businesses to town and make a good-looking building,” property and business owner Paul Deaton told the Fortville Plan Commission earlier this week.
The structure will be developed on speculation, an approach developers have been taking throughout much of western Hancock County for the past several years.
“We don’t have any tenants yet,” Deaton said. “What we’re running into is people want buildings now, they don’t want to wait. We’ve had like a hundred inquiries on this, but nobody wants to sign until they see the building up. Once we get it built, we’ll get some good tenants in there.”
Fortville’s plan commission unanimously approved splitting the approximately 16.65-acre site into a three-lot subdivision and plans for the proposed speculative building.
“Mr. Deaton has been a phenomenal citizen within the town of Fortville, very supportive, and he always brings quality plans to us, just like the first building, so I would say that was a good start for him to present that,” plan commission president Scott Meyer told the Daily Reporter. “We have a certain level of trust with what he’s done and presented in the past. This is just another quality plan, not hard to approve.”
Adam Zaklikowski, Fortville planning and building director, recommended the proposal’s approval as well.
The property’s zoning designation is light industrial, which permits uses like assembly facilities and warehouses, although other uses could be allowed upon approval from the Fortville Board of Zoning Appeals. Forty parking spaces are proposed, but the parking area could be enlarged if necessary. Drainage will flow to a detention pond already on the property.
