Illinois-based pharmacy benefit management company; Catamaran, is bringing an operation with more than 200 workers to Southern Indiana, in large part, because it was promised quick construction of its new facility.
By John R. Karman III – Reporter, Louisville Business First
Jul 19, 2013 Updated Jul 19, 2013, 12:08pm EDT
Developer Lee Wilburn, president of Louisville-based Crossdock Development Inc., told Catamaran Corp. (NASDAQ: CTRX) that his firm could build out the exterior of a 107,500-square-foot building in 90 days.
That would allow the company to meet its deadline of opening its facility at Jeffersonville’s River Ridge Commerce Center by the end of the year.
Work on the project already is under way on a 14-acre tract along Patrol Road, according to Wilburn. The general contractor is Floyds Knobs, Ind.-based AML Inc. Jeffersonville’s Kovert Hawkins Architects Inc. is handling the design work.
“It looks like an Eastpoint (Business Center) office building,” Wilburn said of the planned facility. “It doesn’t look like an industrial building.”
The building will include a pharmacy, call center, offices and warehouse space.
Catamaran will own the building through an affiliate.
It plans to hire 104 full-time workers there next year and a total of 205 by 2015. The jobs will include pharmacists, technicians and call-center personnel. They will support BriovaRx, which Catamaran calls a specialty brand for patients with complex, chronic conditions.
Wilburn said landing the Catamaran deal was “very complicated,” and he praised River Ridge, Jeffersonville and One Southern Indiana officials for making it happen.
“Everybody has just been amazing,” he said.
One Southern Indiana is the economic development agency and chamber of commerce for Clark and Floyd counties.
Developer is on a roll
The Catamaran deal provides continued momentum for Wilburn, who has developed extensively in Southern Indiana.
In late May, he sold a 450,000-square-foot building at River Ridge to Houston-based Pinchal & Co. LLC for $17.4 million, according to public land records.
Prior to the sale, he leased the property to Dayton, Ohio-based Standard Register (NYSE: SR), which has opened a national digital printing and distribution center there.
Standard Register is expected to create as many as 360 jobs by 2016.
Wilburn, who helped put together a deal last year that brought online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its more than 1,000 jobs to River Ridge, said he currently is working on several other deals that he can’t yet announce.
His firm, Crossdock, has nearly completed the pad for a 668,000-square-foot warehouse it plans to build, also on Patrol Road at River Ridge.
“We’re really busy,” he said. “We’ve had great success at River Ridge.”