Indianapolis Business Journal – Precedent Office Park getting new name, $6M-plus in amenity upgrades

October 9, 2018

The new owners of Precedent Office Park—a landmark business park on the north side of Indianapolis—are planning to spend more than $6 million on a rejuvenation project to go along with a name change for the property.

The plans include at least four new tenant-amenity developments that should be completed over the next 18 months.

Indianapolis-based Strategic Capital Partners LLC and Philadelphia-based Rubenstein Partners LP, who acquired the Precedent late last year for $132.7 million, said last week that they have officially changed the name of area’s fourth-largest office park to Lakefront at Keystone. The owners began a soft rollout of the new brand several months ago to alert tenants and prepare marketing materials.

The name was chosen to highlight one of the park’s most notable features—a 38-acre lake that is overlooked by many of the 19 buildings in the 89-acre corporate campus between Keystone Crossing and 96th Street.The lake plays a leading role as a location and a theme in the owners’ amenities plan.

The projects include:

— The Landing at Lakefront, which opened this summer, is an “outdoor lounge” with multiple seating casual options, firepits and games including cornhole and horseshoes. The area is designed for use at lunch, for team-building exercises and after-hours events.

— The Harbor at Lakefront, a floating outdoor barge, will also serve as an “outdoor lounge” as well as an entertainment venue. Owners say the space will be “unlike any other in Indy.”

— The Anchor at Lakefront is an indoor amenity center featuring a fitness center, tenant lounge, cafe, conference facilities and property management office.

— The Boardwalk at Lakefront will feature a winding walkway along the waterfront, basketball court, workout circuit, bike path, food truck depot and seating areas.

Philadelphia-based Groundswell Design Group is handling design of the amenities project, with support from Indianapolis-based CSO Architects and Carson Design.

The Indianapolis office of Development and Construction Insight LLC is managing the construction process. Indianapolis-based Weihe Engineers and Noblesville-based Carmosino Group are providing engineering and pre-development services.

“We’ve assembled an outstanding project team to deliver a carefully crafted package of market-defining amenities that will modernize the office experience for tenants of Lakefront at Keystone,” Rich Horn, CEO of Strategic Capital Partners, said in written comments. “When this office park came online originally, it set a new Indianapolis standard, and we are doing it again with contemporary changes designed to excite our existing tenants and attract new ones.”

The Precedent, which contains about 1.1 million square feet of office space, was developed in the 1980s by Howard Peterson, the late father of former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.

The park has changed hands several times since Peterson sold the property for about $95 million in 1998 to Philadelphia-based BPG Properties.

Cayman Islands-based Global Property Investment Fund shelled out $143 million for the park in 2005 and sold it to LaSalle Investment Management for about $120 million in July 2014. LaSalle sold it to the current owners.

The occupancy rate has risen from a percentage in the low 80s to about 88 percent since the time of the sale, about average occupancy for the Keystone Class A submarket. JLL’s Tammy Faulk and John Robinsonare leasing agents for the property.

Major tenants in the park include Progressive Insurance, Home Point Financial and BSA LifeStructures. Rental rates range from $19.50 to $24 per square foot.