County Commissioners broke ground Wednesday morning at the future site of a shell building in Vanderburgh Industrial Park off of State Road 57.
Commissioners, developers, and their business partners grabbed their shovels for a photo op in front of the empty lot, but constructions workers were already there getting ready to pour concrete.
That empty lot should be the home of a finished shell building by October.
“That’s faster than what I’ve seen,” said Pepper Mulherin, president of the Evansville Industrial Foundations Board.
She said companies have already expressed interest in the future building.
“The longer this building sits on the market, the longer we’re losing money, we’re losing the opportunity in the community to bring in that workforce, to bring in that investment. The sooner the better on these.”
It’s the second shell building in the park. The first was built in 2014 and is now the home of Israel-based Polyram Compounds, LLC. Shell buildings are designed to allow companies to adapt the space to their own needs.
This new building will have a concrete tilt wall. It’s slightly more expensive than metal siding and brings construction costs to $3.9 million for the developers, Woodward Commercial Realty.