MERRILLVILLE — Becknell Industrial is planning a speculative building in Merrillville and has found success with an existing facility built on speculation in Hobart.
Paul Thurston, of Becknell, said the company is pursuing the $12 million project in Merrillville to build the 182,000-square-foot industrial facility on a vacant parcel on Mississippi Street near the Menards location. The building doesn’t have an immediate tenant lined up.
A construction schedule hasn’t been announced, but Thurston said the project would create 70 construction jobs with a total salary around $2.5 million.
The front of the structure will face Interstate 65, and docks will be toward Mississippi. Officials said there will be intense landscaping along Mississippi. It will include planting several trees there.
Becknell Industrial is the developer of the NorthWind Crossings business park. That business park also is off of Mississippi Street, but it’s in Hobart.
As the Merrillville project is still being planned, one of its tenants is expanding operations in a facility originally built on speculation in the NorthWind Crossings site.
Calpipe Industries, which moved to Hobart last year, originally occupied about 85,000 square feet of space in a facility of about 160,000 square feet in the business park.
Calpipe, which manufactures electrical conduit, has found success there and is now planning on using an additional 21,000 square feet in the structure, said Terry Levin, of Becknell.
Levin said there is room for additional expansion there.
Becknell is looking to add two new loading bay doors to the facility, and received site plan approval from Hobart’s Plan Commission for that work.