📢 Executive Update
Browning Friday Report
John Hirschman
Browning Team -
The headline from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway press release on Wednesday said it perfectly: “Grandstand Sellout Sets Stage for Epic Indianapolis 500 Race Day.”
It’s the best month of the year here in Speed City, and I hope everyone has the opportunity to get to the track, enjoy the racing and take advantage of the countless Indy 500 adjacent parties, concerts and cool events taking place throughout our region.
Here’s a link to a comprehensive list of things to do as we approach race day: https://lifeinindy.com/things-to-do/guide-to-the-month-of-may-in-indianapolis/
Sticking with the speed and racing theme, I’m going to share some quick-hit wins and updates with you in today’s Friday Report:
Let’s kick things off with a fantastic Browning win: As I write this, the Browning team is on the cusp of completing the financial closing and commencing construction on our Velocity Hill Road project located in the Canal Winchester suburb of Columbus, Ohio!
This is a symbolically huge project for Browning. It represents the first new ground-up development project undertaken by our company in Ohio, and marks a big step forward in advancing our goal (as shared with you in our 7-year business plan) to diversify and grow the markets where we do business.
As a reminder, the Velocity Hill Road building is a +/- 200,000 square foot, rear-load speculative building that can accommodate up to three tenants. The project includes expansion land that could be utilized for an additional small building or for additional auto or truck trailer parking, outdoor storage, or similar uses. We anticipate substantially completing the facility in December of this year.
It can be exceptionally challenging for commercial real estate companies to successfully expand geographically – where local knowledge, trusted relationships and the inside perspective can be tough to come by for outsiders. So the fact that we’re now able to move dirt on our first industrial project in Ohio speaks volumes about Browning’s “boots on the ground” approach toward development, where we take the time and do the hard work to really understand local market dynamics, the local political environment, the goals of key elected officials, the pros and cons of our potential competitors’ projects, and all the other finicky (but vitally important) details that can make or break a big commercial real estate project.
Please join me in extending a huge shout out and atta boy to our own Jon Rolwing (our “boots on the ground” in Columbus, Ohio) in successfully leading the charge with our Velocity Hill Road project. Jon’s talents and local knowledge were instrumental in identifying the Velocity Hill Road site and development opportunity, and then doing the hard work of transforming the opportunity into an actual, viable project. Way to go, Jon!
Of course, like every Browning project, Velocity Hill Road would not have gotten to the closing table without the hard work, leadership and creativity of many of our Browning colleagues, including Kristy, Terry, Boyd, Doug, Brandon, Chad, Luke, Tom, Erin, Mark S. and Scott. Really exceptional work, team! Additionally, Tyler deserves extra special recognition for leading the closing process for the Velocity Hill Road project. This closing has come hot on the heels of our Northfield Drive West financial closing, and Tyler has been down a team member with Luke on paternity leave for the past couple of weeks. Can’t thank you enough for your outstanding work, Tyler!
Browning’s industrial team scored another win this week with the execution of a lease with IES Communications for the final available space (+/- 45,000 square feet) in our Northfield Drive East building located in Brownsburg, Indiana. IES (https://www.iescomm.com/) undertakes low-voltage wiring, security and rack integration technologies for major data center operators. The economics of our lease with IES are exceptionally strong, and the fact that our Northfield Drive East project is now 100% leased brings the vacancy rate in the Brownsburg submarket to something close to zero. Our timing couldn’t be better for delivering our Northfield Drive West building later this year. Bravo, Mark Susemichel, on another outstanding industrial lease transaction!
Before signing off, here’s a quick reminder to do your best to attend our spring Town Hall meeting next Wednesday, May 20, starting at 9:30am at our Browning office HQ. We are unusually busy right now working on quite a few current projects and a large number of big and promising pursuits – so I can almost guaranty you will learn something new and important next Wednesday.
Importantly, we will be unveiling Browning’s KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dashboard at the Town Hall meeting next week.
Our goals in identifying, tracking and sharing our KPIs with all Browning team members include:
-Clearly articulating Browning’s high-level annual goals and objectives so that we all know what we’re aiming for and why;
-Sharing our goals, objectives, progress and areas in need of improvement with all Browning employees to assure transparency and alignment across teams and departments; and
-Identifying and celebrating our successes over the course of the year, and also – importantly – identifying our challenges and shortcomings early on so that we can tackle them swiftly and with focus.
I'm confident our KPI dashboard will greatly improve visibility into Browning’s goals, successes and challenges – and will help clarify how to better align our personal goals (including our SMART goals) with the priorities of our teams and our company.
Bri, Erin and Tom have done an exceptional job putting together our KPI dashboard – you won’t want to miss the unveiling of their handiwork at the Town Hall meeting!
Thanks for all you do for Browning.
John
The headline from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway press release on Wednesday said it perfectly: “Grandstand Sellout Sets Stage for Epic Indianapolis 500 Race Day.”
It’s the best month of the year here in Speed City, and I hope everyone has the opportunity to get to the track, enjoy the racing and take advantage of the countless Indy 500 adjacent parties, concerts and cool events taking place throughout our region.
Here’s a link to a comprehensive list of things to do as we approach race day: https://lifeinindy.com/things-to-do/guide-to-the-month-of-may-in-indianapolis/
Sticking with the speed and racing theme, I’m going to share some quick-hit wins and updates with you in today’s Friday Report:
Let’s kick things off with a fantastic Browning win: As I write this, the Browning team is on the cusp of completing the financial closing and commencing construction on our Velocity Hill Road project located in the Canal Winchester suburb of Columbus, Ohio!
This is a symbolically huge project for Browning. It represents the first new ground-up development project undertaken by our company in Ohio, and marks a big step forward in advancing our goal (as shared with you in our 7-year business plan) to diversify and grow the markets where we do business.
As a reminder, the Velocity Hill Road building is a +/- 200,000 square foot, rear-load speculative building that can accommodate up to three tenants. The project includes expansion land that could be utilized for an additional small building or for additional auto or truck trailer parking, outdoor storage, or similar uses. We anticipate substantially completing the facility in December of this year.
It can be exceptionally challenging for commercial real estate companies to successfully expand geographically – where local knowledge, trusted relationships and the inside perspective can be tough to come by for outsiders. So the fact that we’re now able to move dirt on our first industrial project in Ohio speaks volumes about Browning’s “boots on the ground” approach toward development, where we take the time and do the hard work to really understand local market dynamics, the local political environment, the goals of key elected officials, the pros and cons of our potential competitors’ projects, and all the other finicky (but vitally important) details that can make or break a big commercial real estate project.
Please join me in extending a huge shout out and atta boy to our own Jon Rolwing (our “boots on the ground” in Columbus, Ohio) in successfully leading the charge with our Velocity Hill Road project. Jon’s talents and local knowledge were instrumental in identifying the Velocity Hill Road site and development opportunity, and then doing the hard work of transforming the opportunity into an actual, viable project. Way to go, Jon!
Of course, like every Browning project, Velocity Hill Road would not have gotten to the closing table without the hard work, leadership and creativity of many of our Browning colleagues, including Kristy, Terry, Boyd, Doug, Brandon, Chad, Luke, Tom, Erin, Mark S. and Scott. Really exceptional work, team! Additionally, Tyler deserves extra special recognition for leading the closing process for the Velocity Hill Road project. This closing has come hot on the heels of our Northfield Drive West financial closing, and Tyler has been down a team member with Luke on paternity leave for the past couple of weeks. Can’t thank you enough for your outstanding work, Tyler!
Browning’s industrial team scored another win this week with the execution of a lease with IES Communications for the final available space (+/- 45,000 square feet) in our Northfield Drive East building located in Brownsburg, Indiana. IES (https://www.iescomm.com/) undertakes low-voltage wiring, security and rack integration technologies for major data center operators. The economics of our lease with IES are exceptionally strong, and the fact that our Northfield Drive East project is now 100% leased brings the vacancy rate in the Brownsburg submarket to something close to zero. Our timing couldn’t be better for delivering our Northfield Drive West building later this year. Bravo, Mark Susemichel, on another outstanding industrial lease transaction!
Before signing off, here’s a quick reminder to do your best to attend our spring Town Hall meeting next Wednesday, May 20, starting at 9:30am at our Browning office HQ. We are unusually busy right now working on quite a few current projects and a large number of big and promising pursuits – so I can almost guaranty you will learn something new and important next Wednesday.
Importantly, we will be unveiling Browning’s KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dashboard at the Town Hall meeting next week.
Our goals in identifying, tracking and sharing our KPIs with all Browning team members include:
-Clearly articulating Browning’s high-level annual goals and objectives so that we all know what we’re aiming for and why;
-Sharing our goals, objectives, progress and areas in need of improvement with all Browning employees to assure transparency and alignment across teams and departments; and
-Identifying and celebrating our successes over the course of the year, and also – importantly – identifying our challenges and shortcomings early on so that we can tackle them swiftly and with focus.
I'm confident our KPI dashboard will greatly improve visibility into Browning’s goals, successes and challenges – and will help clarify how to better align our personal goals (including our SMART goals) with the priorities of our teams and our company.
Bri, Erin and Tom have done an exceptional job putting together our KPI dashboard – you won’t want to miss the unveiling of their handiwork at the Town Hall meeting!
Thanks for all you do for Browning.
John