The Livonia, Mich.-based auto supplier Tower International Inc. (NYSE: TOWR) has signed a lease for 219,000 square feet of space at the Park 480 building in the Cedar Grove Business Park in Shepherdsville.
I first reported that Tower was considering a new facility in Shepherdsville in late March after the company was preliminarily approved for state tax incentives. At the time, Cedar Grove was a likely location for the facility.
This week the Kansas City-based owner of Park 480, VanTrust Real Estate LLC, issued a news release saying it has signed a lease with the company. An official at Tower confirmed that this lease was related to the expansion announced in March.
The new facility would allow the company to have more space for stamping and welding subassemblies for sport utility vehicles. A few SUVs are manufactured here in Louisville, including Ford’s Expedition and Escape and Lincoln's Navigator and MKC.
When it applied for tax incentives, Tower said it planned to invest $36.4 million in the new facility and create 78 new jobs during the next 15 years. Tower also has operations in Bardstown. Those operations are not expected to be affected by the Shepherdsville location.
According to VanTrust's website, Park 480 is a 500,918-square-foot warehouse that was constructed in 2014. It's the company's first project in metro Louisville.
“We are pleased that Tower selected Park 480 to accommodate the expansion needs of their Louisville operations,” Andrew Weeks, vice president at VanTrust, said in the release.
Kevin Grove, a senior vice president and partner with CBRE Louisville, worked on the transaction. He said in the release that he expects demand for the space to be fairly strong because of the Louisville market’s low vacancy rate, active prospect list and strong market drivers.