MacAllister Machinery recently held an open house to welcome customers and neighbors to their new corporate headquarters on the southeast side of Indianapolis. The sprawling 371,800-square-foot building is situated on 135 acres and resembles a lodge more than a full-line construction equipment dealership.

The building houses approximately 250 employees and includes a central parts warehouse surrounded by large and small equipment services bays, retail/sales operations, executive and administrative office space, a cafeteria, training center and employee health clinic. The new headquarters brings together divisions of the Caterpillar dealership that had been spread around the city including the smaller lines, landscape and retail store formerly in Beech Grove, truck shop, heavy equipment shop, power systems, generators and a new rental branch serving the east side. The only divisions not at the new location are agriculture and shoring.

The site features large equipment storage yards dedicated to each MacAllister business unit and display areas for MacAllister's multiple lines of products and equipment. The landscape includes multiple tree species and grasses along with a retention pond and is designed to minimize the impact on adjacent neighborhoods.

A Caterpillar, natural gas-fired generator set is used to reduce electric utility consumption when on-site demand meets certain levels as well as produce heat for use within the building. The generator was brought over from Germany and is only the third of its kind in the U.S. MacAllister estimates that the generator saves them $75,000 per year and can be reversed to sell back electricity to the utility company.

The service bays feature state-of-the-art hoisting crane equipment and fluid distribution and exhaust systems. Everything needed to support service technicians is consolidated in the area including a welding booth, track repair bay, hydraulic shop, paint booth and an indoor wash station.

The architect for the project was Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf, the construction manager was Browning, the civil engineer was American Structurepoint, the structural engineer was Fink Roberts & Petrie and the MEP engineer was Applied Engineering Services.