Indiana Beverage continues to fill Blue Jay II with local businesses

Valparaiso-based and family-owned beer wholesaler Indiana Beverage continues to pour into the community where it began by investing in the growth and foundation of other local businesses.

In 2019, Indiana Beverage funded the building Blue Jay I, a 65,000 square foot flex space. Blue Jay I currently houses five diverse businesses and sits on Indiana Beverage’s property just north of the company’s beverage warehouse. Now, Indiana Beverage has built a second similar, but larger, flex space known as Blue Jay II. 

“We diversified and built two buildings, Blue Jay I and Blue Jay II,” said Indiana Beverage owner and Executive Vice President Jeff Leetz. 

At 115,000 square feet, Blue Jay II has a handful of tenants and is currently accepting additional tenants. Blue Jay II, which is adjacent to Blue Jay I, offers tenants a seven year tax abatement to rent the space, similar to the first building.

The commercial spaces were designed to be nimble to fit the needs of tenants. Both spaces hold, and will continue to hold, very diverse businesses. For example, some of Blue Jay I’s tenants include a commercial warehouse and storage business, a bread distributor, and a product retailer.

“We can build it out to fit anyone’s needs,” Jeff Leetz said. 

Jeff Leetz and his team first thought of the idea of building out flex space after reflecting on the business’ capabilities related to their core operations – namely warehousing and transportation.

“We’re pretty good at warehousing and transportation,” Leetz said.

Bruce Leetz, Jeff’s father, thought of the name Blue Jay I for the space. 

“I wish there was a good story behind that, but there’s really not,” Jeff laughed. “My dad said ‘How about Blue Jay?’”

Harlin (Harley) Leetz, Jeff’s grandfather, started in the business in 1962. Since then, four generations of the Leetz family have worked at Indiana Beverage.

“Valparaiso has been a great city for my family for 135 years,” Leetz said. “It’s a tight-knit community here, and maybe we can bring more great families here.”

Jeff is proud to have a hard-working team that helps make all that Indiana Beverage offers and does possible. 

“We grew up in the beer industry, and we have the most amazing team here at Indiana Beverage,” he said. “It’s all about the people.”

Those interested in becoming a tenant of Blue Jay II can reach out directly to Jeff at jeff.leetz@indianabev.com. For more information on Indiana Beverage, visit indianabev.com.