November 2022 City Scoop: Indianapolis
City Grill
Steve Davidson
Executive Vice President and Partner
American Structurepoint
“In Indianapolis, as well as other key cities across the country, the buzz continues to revolve around the ongoing labor shortage and staffing needs to properly deliver projects for clients,” Davidson says. “There is no shortage of AEC work, and labor needs are increasing. Rising project costs is another important issue. Project costs are going up at an astonishing rate because of the rising cost of materials, coupled with rising labor costs due to the labor shortage.”
In many cases, high-tech and innovation are driving development.
“The state of Indiana is developing the Limited Exploration/Advanced Pace (LEAP) Lebanon Innovation and Research District. This more than 7,000-acre [site] located just north of Indianapolis will be a hub for the research and development, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, technology and microelectronics and semiconductor industries. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. is investing $2.1 billion on two new manufacturing facilities in LEAP. Also, a $1.8-billion semiconductor manufacturing facility is to be built in the Discovery Park District at Purdue University,” he says.
Health care is another flourishing sector.
“Construction is booming at the IU Health Downtown Indianapolis campus, a 44-acre healthcare complex that includes a new acute care hospital. Construction began this year and will continue through 2026. In general, inflation and rising material costs will continue to impact the Indianapolis construction market. We expect to see some pullback as owners may not be able to move forward with as many capital projects as they originally planned. We are already seeing a slowdown in the building of new single-family homes and in the private development side.”
American Structurepoint is leading the engineering and design for the final leg of the I-69 Finish Line project that completes the connection between Evansville and Indianapolis. This is the Indiana Dept. of Transportation’s largest project to date, at $728 million in construction costs.
