Industrial Developments International, or IDI, is a national real estate firm that does development, leasing, investment management and property management. IDI bought the debt of the Monroe business park earlier this year from Huntington National Bank and finished the foreclosure against the park’s former owner, VH Monroe.
The property owner VH Monroe was owned by Rob Smyjunas, chief executive officer of Cincinnati development company Vandercar Holdings.
The property has been renamed Park North at Monroe. It is IDI’s first venture in Warren County, said Doug Armbruster, senior vice president and regional managing director at IDI’s Cincinnati market office, actually located in Northern Kentucky.
IDI bought about 300 acres in the business park, which sits next to the Interstate 75 and Ohio 63 interchange, and consists of an empty speculative building and undeveloped land. VH Monroe built two buildings on the site and had plans for more before the economic recession took hold. The Home Depot Rapid Deployment Center opened in the first building in 2009 and was originally part of the business park, but that property has since been sectioned off and is owned by Prologis.
Armbruster said there’s no reason the vacant building isn’t leased.
“The access, it doesn’t get any better,” Armbruster said. “The roadway, the landscaping, it’s very well executed. There’s nothing negative about the building.”
“It just needs to be repositioned, marketed and branded,” he said.
IDI is putting fresh paint on the empty building and has changed the site plans. Park North gives IDI the capability to develop approximately 4.1 million square feet at the interchange.
“We were interested in the property because we’ve been looking for some additional land in the Cincinnati area,” Armbruster said. “We were fully depleted. Land is our raw material.”
He believes IDI will have more success because it is a national property developer with name recognition that national clients are comfortable with.
IDI will be prepared to offer build-to-suit and ready-to-lease buildings at the new Monroe location, he said.
“Historically, we typically like to have ready space available for lease in the markets where we’ve got a presence, coupled with available land sites,” he said.
Local residents might be familiar with IDI for its other developments in Monroe, West Chester Twp. and throughout the area.
IDI nationally is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. The Cincinnati market office opened in 1989. Here IDI specializes in distribution, logistics and light manufacturing developments, Armbruster said.
Nearly 200 acres of land has been developed by the company in West Chester Twp. — the projects are called Port Union at Union Centre and Port Union Distribution Center. It includes tenants such as Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Cornerstone Brands, Red Bull’s distribution center, and Kao Brands. About 18 available acres are left there, Armbruster said.
In Monroe on Logistics Way off Salzman Road, IDI is finishing construction of a second building in a project called Monroe Logistics Center. Monroe Logistics Center consists of two buildings on approximately 86 acres. The first is fully occupied by Hayneedle and Appleton Papers.
Hayneedle said in October it was growing its distribution center to lease more space in the building for a total approximately 600,000-square-feet.
IDI is marketing the second newly constructed building there to possible tenants.
About the Author