Louisville, KY — July 13, 2021 — Hunt Midwest is pleased to announce the completion of Blankenbaker Logistics Center, a 322,831-square-foot industrial development in Louisville, Kentucky. Built on speculation, Hunt Midwest broke ground on this development in the heart of Louisville’s established northeast industrial corridor as its proximity to major transportation arteries I-64, I-265 and I-71 puts it within a day’s drive for 50% of the US population.

Piston Automotive, the world’s largest Value Add Assembly supplier, signed a lease for the entire facility before build-out was complete. This reinforces a critical need for such space in the Louisville market. Hunt Midwest is planning additional projects in this region to bring warehouse and industrial space to a growing market focused on manufacturing and supply-chain efficiencies, inventory management, and speed-to-consumer markets.

“We leveraged the benefits of both UPS Worldport and two Ford manufacturing plants to construct a spec industrial building that works for growing companies in the area like Piston Automotive,” says Mike Bell, senior vice president at Hunt Midwest. “Blankenbaker Logistics Center is the perfect location for providing supply chain and distribution solutions to tenants who use just-in-time supply chain principles and need redundancy in their operations. Blankenbaker Logistics Center is our first development in Louisville, but it won’t be our last.”

The property is leased in its entirety by Piston Automotive. The 36’ clear height cross-dock facility is ideal for a business that supports the manufacture and assembly of Ford vehicles. The warehouse features insulated pre-cast panels, 60-foot speed bays, a 140-foot-deep truck court, 4 drive-in doors, 44 trailer parking spots, and 187 parking stalls. This facility is expandable to 88 doors as the need arises.

“As soon as we learned of Hunt Midwest’s new development in Blankenbaker Station, we were interested,” says Nayan Patel, director of property management for Piston Automotive. “We’d already outgrown our current facility, which we moved into in 2011. To expand our production and manufacturing operations, we needed a larger, more customized space. Blankenbaker Logistics Center will allow us to grow and operate more efficiently for years to come.”

H2B Architects handled design work for this project. Engineers are Mindel Scott, JSC Engineers and Willett Engineering. The leasing broker is Kevin Grove of CBRE.

Hunt Midwest has 50+ years of experience in the industrial sector and currently has more than 2.5 million square feet of buildings under development in Kansas City, Kentucky and South Carolina.

About Hunt Midwest
Hunt Midwest is a dynamic real estate development company privately held by the Lamar Hunt family. Based in Kansas City with over 50 years of development, construction and management experience, Hunt Midwest’s wide range of projects include industrial, commercial, mission critical, self-storage, residential, multifamily, senior living, mixed use and SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex. Hunt Midwest is part of the Lamar Hunt family’s diverse portfolio of entities involved in real estate, sports/media, energy/resources and private equity investments. In addition to Hunt Midwest, marquee entities include the Kansas City Chiefs, Hunt Southwest, FC Dallas Soccer Club, Toyota Stadium, Chicago Bulls and United Center.

About Piston Automotive
Piston Automotive is part of Piston Group, headquartered in Redford, Michigan. Piston Automotive designs, engineers, assembles and manufactures a wide variety of automotive parts and systems. Founded in 1995 by industry magnate and former NBA champion Vinnie Johnson, Piston Automotive has ten facilities throughout the US and is one of the largest private minority-owned automotive suppliers in North America.