News Room
Calif. company buys land near Flagship
By Lindsay Whitehurst - The Herald Bulletin
July 29, 2006
They started with something old, but they didn't stop there. This week, Tower Investments bought a piece of the new economy in Anderson.
The Sacramento, Calif.-based company bought the old Guide Corp. Plant 9 last year. Last week, they bought 60 acres of farmland near the Flagship Enterprise Center for an undisclosed sum.
"We got to know the community and better comfort level for where it was (economically)," Matt Marks, senior vice president at Tower, said. "It seems like it had been hit hard (by job loss) but it's coming out of that."
The company plans to develop the property into commercial, office or light industrial space, Marks said. Work should begin in the next six months, depending on market forces. The company will either develop the land itself or sell off parcels to other developers.
The property is located on the southwest corner of Interstate 69 and Indiana 67, across from Irving Materials.
"This is the first of many things to come at (Exit 22)," Deputy Economic Development Director Linda Dawson said. "The city is real excited to have the quality of Tower purchase property in our community."
The parcel isn't far from the site where Nestle Corp. will build a factory and distribution center in 2007, and some of the development there could serve Nestle and its employees.
The company bought the land from Bagot Farm Interest.
"I was pleased to have a quality, very reputable developer (purchase the land)," said property owner Walter Bagot of Fishers, a retired advertising executive. "I've been talking to people for several years, and I was very interested in Tower."
His family bought the land in 1915, and it has been farmed ever since. As The Flagship business park expands, however, the land is slowly being developed.
Tower is a family owned investment company with commercial land holdings in 14 states. Its entry into the central Indiana market is fairly recent, in fact, Guide Plant 9 was its first piece of property here. In the last year, two tenants have moved into the old factory.
"We're getting bids to take down smokestacks you see from Martin Luther King (Boulevard)," Marks said. "We need to do it, getting feedback that it needs to make a better image. The building is pretty flexible; we don't need to sell the whole 600,000 square feet - it breaks nicely 300,000 and 300,000."