Retailer GNC to create $25M distribution hub, hire 225

General Nutrition Centers plans to create a $25 million warehouse near Whitestown and create 225 jobs in the facility by 2017.

Pittsburgh-based GNC has inked a 15-year lease on 342,000 square feet in a 600,000-square-foot warehouse-and-distribution center in the AllPoints in Anson business park. GNC expects to begin operations in the regional distribution center in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a company spokeswoman.

The facility will be one of the company’s four distribution centers for national operations.

Whitestown and the Boone County Redevelopment Commission have granted GNC a seven-year tax abatement on $21 million in equipment, said Bryan Brackemyre, executive director of Boone County Economic Development Corp.

GNC plans to employ 175 people by 2015, Brackemyre said. The number of jobs would increase to 225, and the average hourly wage to $14.32, by 2017.

AllPoints at Anson, located along Interstate 65 in southeast Boone County, is a joint venture of local developers Browning Investments Inc. and Duke Realty Corp. The building GNC will inhabit is a spec project—meaning that it was built without a signed tenant or buyer.

Such projects have been rare since the real estate collapse of the late 2000s.

GNC’s decision to lease the space “reaffirms our decision to develop a speculative building,” said Charlie Podell, senior vice president of Duke’s Indiana operations. “We look forward to the jobs and positive effect [GNC] will have on the area’s economy.”

The Anson project “provides us with great highway access and the flexibility to expand as our business grows,” said Jay Kent, senior vice president of distribution and transportation for GNC.

A retailer of health and wellness products, GNC Holdings Inc. sells products through a worldwide network of more than 8,400 locations operating under the GNC name, including more than 6,300 in the U.S.