Clarksville's former Colgate plant set for $500M Clockworks redevelopment

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A major redevelopment could transform the former Colgate-Palmolive plant in Clarksville, Indiana.

According to our partners at Louisville Business First, Weyland Ventures is planning a $500 million mixed-use project called Clockworks on the 57-acre site.

The development would include a hotel, conference center, restaurants, apartments and a sports complex, while preserving historic features like the 38-foot clock that inspired the name.

"We started to look at how this project would be branded," Bill Weyland, chief strategy officer for Weyland Venutes, said to LBF. "... But the thing that seems to resonate with everyone about this particular site is the clock."

The common area within the property would be laid out for food trucks along with green space, fountains, a stage and a brew house.

"It's all sitting there right now," Weyland said. "We just have to spruce it up a little bit."

The Clarksville Town Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the project. Developers hope to complete design work by early 2027 and fully restore and transform the property over the next two decades.

The building has been unoccupied since Colgate-Palmolive relocated the plant — which once employed 1,000 people — in 2008. In 2022, the Town of Clarksville condemned the building, using eminent domain to acquire, protect and reuse the historic site at a later date after years went by without any redevelopment movement.

Barry Alberts, a partner at Weyland Ventures, said they're developing a "special place."

"This now becomes the northern anchor," he said Wednesday.

Before becoming the Colgate-Palmolive plant, it was the site of Indiana's first state prison in 1847, becoming a state reformatory 50 years later. The property was acquired by Colgate in 1924 and is also on the National Register of Historic Places. The famous clock on the building, built in 1906, was moved from Jersey City to Clarksville for the grand opening.