CARMEL– In a city where property always goes for a premium, one very large and prominent piece is poised to command a fortune.
The campus of CNO Financial is up for sale.
The site is 78 acres, situated just east of a major state corridor in U.S. 31 and directly linked by City Center Drive to many of Carmel’s other recent redevelopment projects.
“It’s an amazing location,” Andrew Urban tells WISH-TV. He’s the Senior Vice President of Occupier Services for Colliers Indianapolis, which is acting as the agent for the sale. “This is one of those opportunities that comes around once in a generation.”
The massive site’s current buildings date to the explosive 1990s growth of what was then Conseco.
The company, renamed ‘CNO’, has seen swings in success and strategies in recent years, and it is now transitioning to a new headquarters in an office building less than a mile west of its current campus.
“CNO wanted to upgrade its workplace strategy,” says Urban.
Selling the campus is likely to deliver a large boost to the company’s coffers. Urban declines to put a price tag on the property at this point, choosing instead to solicit offers from local and national developers to see what the market will bear. A quick glance at current Carmel real estate values and past redevelopment projects in similar communities suggests that a final sale price could head deep into the tens of millions of dollars.
Colliers is especially enthusiastic about what’s not on the site.
“It’s only 20% covered by buildings today,” says Urban, indicating that the large open areas are essentially a blank canvas that will require little in the way of demolition.
Urban says his team will work closely with the administration of Carmel’s newly-elected Mayor Sue Finkham. “The city is really good about working with developers to figure out what the community needs,” he says.
As for what will go up in the future, Colliers is offering many possibilities and few limits.
“Offices, labs, parks… how about another trail loop to connect to the Monon? Public green spaces, entertainment areas… residential, too,” Urban enthusiastically muses.
Urban says the ideal buyer would act as a master developer for the entire property but that splitting it into two or three parcels is a possibility, too.
