Celadon receives incentives for $5.2M driving training center

Indianapolis-based trucking carrier Celadon Group Inc. received tax abatements Wednesday to help it build a $5.25 million driver-training center that would add 182 workers to its 633-employee local work force by 2016.

The Metropolitan Development Commission approved a seven-year real property-tax abatement worth $205,494 and a personal property-tax abatement worth $7,000.

Celadon plans the driver training center for a vacant 7.65-acre site in the vicinity of its corporate campus in Warren Township at 9050 E. 33rd St.

The planned 60,000-square-foot facility, which would include a dormitory for driver trainees, is in addition to plans the company announced in 2011 to build a $3.4 million, 36,000-square-foot office building at its campus.

The city approved tax abatements worth $261,308 for the previous project.

Celadon has about 4,000 employees in total and is one of the nation’s largest truckload carriers, with annual revenue of more than $525 million.