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Norfolk Southern Corp., the $3 billion Virginia-based railroad empire, will make a substantial investment in the Indianapolis area when it begins construction this spring on a mammoth $250 million to $300 million mixed-use office/retail/industrial park on the city's far northeastside.
The entire 335-acre Northgate Business Park will be located on what is now a strip of farmland between I-69 to the east and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks to the west. The tract is directly north of 96th Street and extends north to the town of Fishers.
The development will be the huge company's first in the state and one of only a few projects of its type undertaken by the company since it began looking at the "highest and best use" for its real estate holdings three years ago, says Joel Harrell, manager of planning and engineering for Norfolk Southern.
Before that, says Harrell, the company's real estate development activities were limited to establishing rail-serve industrial parks close to its railroad lines.
The company had studied just such a development for the property here 12-to-14 years ago, says Harrell, but the plans never got off the ground.
Since then, "Indianapolis has grown to the property...