The Southern Indiana community of Bloomfield is poised to become a hub for defense, aerospace and advanced manufacturing thanks to a major project by ACMI Properties.
Construction is set to begin on the National Security Industrial Hub in the second half of 2025 in Bloomfield, Indiana. The 1,100-acre site is positioned near the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Crane Division, the world’s third-largest naval installation. The goal is to attract defense, aerospace and manufacturing companies to the site.
Prometheus, a U.S.-based supplier of solid rocket motors, will be the site’s first anchor tenant. The company will establish its headquarters and production facility on 550 acres of the National Security Industrial Hub. Prometheus is scheduled to open its facility here in phases starting in 2027.
And this should just be the beginning, said JLL executive managing directors Steve Schwegman, who along with fellow JLL executive managing director Brian Seitz, is representing landlord ACMI Properties in leasing space at the new development.
Schwegman said that he expects a steady stream of defense, high-tech and aerospace tenants to seek space in the hub. More companies are seeking to open manufacturing space in the United States, a trend that is no longer new.
“A lot of people will cite tariffs as a reason why we will see more reshoring of industrial and manufacturing in the United States,” Schwegman said. “But this trend has been in motion since COVID. Companies are looking for any way to shorten the supply chain and to increase diversity in their manufacturing bases so that they don’t have all their eggs in one geographic basket.”
Shortening the supply chain is a major goal of many of JLL’s clients, Schwegman said. And that is something that will benefit the new development in Bloomfield.
“The shorter the distance a product has to travel, the faster you can get it into your end users’ and customers’ hands,” Schwegman said. “This has been going on nationally. We are just starting to see it in a big way in Indiana.”
According to ACMI Properties, the National Security Industrial Hub will offer tenants flexible site configurations tailored to mission-critical industries, including aerospace, energetics and munitions manufacturing.
JLL says that the development, covering 1,141 acres, is designed to lower economic barriers for startups, ensuring that companies have the resources they need to rapidly test, refine and scale production. The hub will also foster collaboration between private industry and the defense sector.
Simon Shewmaker, ACMI’s head of development, said that the site offers plenty of positives for tenants, including, of course, its first, Prometheus.
The land is a close drive to Bloomington, Indiana, and Indianapolis. The recently completed extension of Interstate-69 connects the location to Indianapolis, meaning that the site is only a 30-minute drive from the state’s biggest metropolitan area, and all the resources and the deep labor pool it offers.
“The world is changing,” Shewmaker said. “It is important for the United States to have resiliency with its industrial base and be able to support the aerospace and defense efforts. This administration and prior administrations are trying to focus on bringing back that capacity to the United States. There has been a broader effort to enhance manufacturing in the United States. It’s not just U.S.-based companies but private companies that are in allied countries that are being encouraged to establish a presence here and manufacture on U.S. soil.”
Shewmaker said that even though the National Security Industrial Hub will cater toward advanced manufacturing tenants, especially those in the aerospace industry and those focusing on national security, ACMI Properties has also had conversations with manufacturers in other industries. He said that he expects ACMI to make additional announcements on incoming tenants soon.
How will JLL market this site? Schwegman said that it’s still about selling the benefits of the site and communicating them clearly to possible tenants.
“For the most part, it’s the same thing we would do for any project that we are marketing,” Schwegman said. “It’s always about the real estate 101 marketing. But in addition to that, we had to get smart about who are the manufacturers that would be interested in a project like this and who are the vendors for those manufacturers and suppliers. The big difference has been that we have added to our list of perspective tenants and occupiers.”
Schwegman said that the project will provide a boost to the surrounding area, most notably through the creation of new jobs. And these new jobs will be high-paying ones.
“What’s most exciting about this type of project is that the companies here will employ a skilled workforce,” Schwegman said. “These are higher-paid, technical jobs. It is great for the tax base. Previously, this property was considered agricultural property that had a low tax rate. That is now changing and will be a financial benefit to the area.”
Shewmaker said that the skilled workforce available to ACMI Properties made a difference, too, when the company was searching for a site for its project. As Shewmaker says, tenants at the development can bring in workers from Bloomington or Indianapolis, as neither commute is too long.
