Big Lots planning for Merrillville distribution center | Merrillville

Merrillville Economic Development Director Angela Chilcott on Tuesday announced Big Lots will lease a 261,000-square-foot facility in the business park along Broadway. The building will serve as a distribution facility for the company’s furniture line.

“Big Lots is thrilled to join the Merrillville community with our newest forward distribution center,” Big Lots said in a prepared statement. “It will support the company’s retail stores across the Midwest as the national retailer continues to grow.”

Crow Holdings developed the building in which Big Lots will locate the distribution operations. Sean Andrews, of Crow Holdings, said the company invested $21.5 million in the facility, and that figure will grow as more work is done for Big Lots.

“We’re going to be putting in an additional couple million dollars as part of this lease to build out an office for Big Lots,” Andrews said. “We’re going to be securing the premises as well as some additional warehouse improvements, so our overall investment in the project will be approaching the mid $20 millions.”

Andrews said Big Lots has more than 1,400 stores in 47 states, and more are on the way.

“They’ve recently unveiled pretty ambitious plans for an expansion program across the country,” he said.

Andrews said Crow Holdings didn’t have a tenant in place when the company began building the 261,000-square-foot structure, but Crow was confident it could fill the space.

“We’re excited about the lease,” he said.

Big Lots hasn’t yet announced when the furniture distribution facility will open.

As that project advances, Crow Holdings is planning for another building on about 11 acres of land in AmeriPlex.

Andrews said there are potential tenants for the site, but no agreements were in place as of Tuesday. If projects don’t materialize with those possible tenants, Crow Holdings will construct a 150,000-square-foot speculative building there.

Crow Holdings also has plans to develop an industrial park on 196 acres of land on Mississippi Street between 93rd and 101st avenues.

Crow Holdings will build multiple speculative facilities there, and the buildings could have a total of about 2.3 million square feet of space when the project is finished. Construction could start this spring.

The significant development planned for that area of Merrillville has town leaders considering how to enhance emergency services there, Town Manager Pat Reardon said.

“One of the items we are actively discussing … is the construction of a police/fire facility in that area to service these developments,” Reardon said. “We know it’s a large undertaking, we know it’s expensive, but we are sensitive to everyone’s needs down there and we are actively exploring that option right now.”

He said town officials understand there is limited coverage in the southern area of town, and the Police and Fire departments agree a new station would be beneficial.

“To be south of (U.S.) 30 makes an awful lot of sense, cut down on response times,” Reardon said.

Council President Rick Bella said there is “nothing concrete yet” for a potential police and fire station, but conversations are ongoing.