Sephora plans distribution center in Avon

AVON, Ind. (The Republican) — A new development is set to bring more than 400 jobs to the Hendricks County area next summer.

Sephora, a beauty product company with its origin roots in France, has chosen to bury some in Avon with its 750,000 square foot distribution center being built off of Ronald Reagan Parkway and near East County Road 300 North.

The company, which was originally exploring options in eight different states, according to the Town’s Economic Development Director John Taylor, eventually landed on Avon due to the attractive incentives that were offered.

“There’s all kinds of things that we do to attract a company,” Taylor said, including tax abatements.

A tax abatement is a reduction on the amount a company will pay in taxes. Towns often offer abatements when trying to bring in big corporations.

For this specific development the Town of Avon issued Sephora the following incentives, according to Taylor:

• A $50,000 grant for training employees (the County offered $425,000 for training).
• A tax abatement on both real and personal property (meaning land and equipment): “It is a standard abatement [that] abates about 50% of their taxes over a ten-year period,” Taylor said.
• The Town is allowing the developer to use some of the Tax Increment Financing monies to pay for the construction of the road that will access the facility. That amount alone is $1.5 million.

The Town’s willingness to offer such incentives spurred from their own attraction to the development and all it has to offer, including the introduction of 425 jobs, at least 10% of which will be allotted for individuals with disabilities.

“They [Sephora] told me they’d hire everybody they could with disabilities,” Taylor said.

This itself was intriguing to the town, because as Taylor put it, “It’s just unheard of in most places where there’s forklifts and big racking and all that, they want able-bodied people, but they’ve found jobs that all these people can do.”

Plus, with the addition of more, high paying jobs, Taylor believes that this center will boost the local economy as well.

“People, they want to spend money. . .they can only spend money if they have jobs that pay the right amount of money,” the Economic Developer explained.

Sephora, the Town of Avon, and VanTrust reality all came together on August 1, 2024 for the groundbreaking ceremony of this facility.

With construction underway, the building is intended to be operational late next year, as specified by Taylor.

This article originally appeared in The Republican.