Developer seeks tax break for $11M medical office building in Fishers

Indianapolis-based Cornerstone Cos. Inc. is working on plans for an $11 million medical office building near St. Vincent and IU Health hospitals in Fishers.

The developer—which builds, leases and manages health-care properties—is targeting a 4-acre site on Olivia Way, off Interstate 69’s Exit 210. Preliminary plans call for a three-story, 43,000-square-foot facility largely owned by the doctors who practice there.

A partnership dubbed Deer Creek Point MOB LLC would own and operate the speculative medical building, which would be funded through the sale of “membership units” to participating physicians, according to a project summary provided to Fishers Town Council ahead of its Monday meeting.

Cornerstone principals Bob Whitacre and Tag Birge also would purchase an interest in the company and act as its managers, the summary said.

"It's a great area with visibility, demographics and rooftops being built nearby," Birge said.

The proposed project represents an $11 million investment that is expected to create 30 jobs within six years, Deer Creek Point said in a request for a property-tax abatement filed with the town. The new positions would pay an estimated $45,000 a year.

Half the jobs are expected to be created within three years, and the other half in the following three years.

Town staff recommends the council approve the incentives to land the project, which will “diversify the business mix in the area and create a higher taxable use for this parcel,” Tim Gropp, assistant director of economic development, wrote in the summary.

Aside from the two hospitals, nearby development so far has been largely retail. In the long term, a medical office building would produce more taxes than a retail building, Gropp told the council.

Council members are weighing whether to declare the parcel an economic revitalization area, the first step in qualifying the project for a tax abatement. If final approval comes next month, the town would forgive two-thirds of property taxes for six years.

Construction could begin this summer, Birge said.