The FedEx Ground project in Lebanon is about halfway complete, with the sort and distribution facility on schedule for a July opening, FedEx said.

FedEx is building a new $15 million distribution center in the industrial park Lebanon Commerce Center, off Henkle Drive, to meet growing demand for services in the Cincinnati area. Construction broke ground at the end of May this year, the builder said.

The approximately 175,000-square-foot shipping and receiving facility, on 28 acres, will deliver small packages by ground shipping.

When FedEx Ground opens, close to 120 new full- and part-time jobs will be added in Lebanon, said Jason Millard, the city’s economic development director.

In recent weeks, work finished on a new roadway to the FedEx site, Millard said. The new Homan Road, connected to Henkle Drive, opens an additional 30 to 40 acres with frontage on Homan Road for future development, he said.

“It’s a good number of jobs, 100 jobs, significant investment,” he said. “I think the Interstate 71/Ohio 48 interchange was very attractive to FedEx. The Lebanon Commerce Center where they’re located is only 15 minutes away from (Interstate) 75.”

The Henkle Schueler division of The Schueler Group of Companies brokered the land sale for the project, and its division Bunnell Hill Construction Co. is doing the construction.

The building is under roof, said Kevin Scott, executive vice president of Bunnell Hill. Construction work will be finished by Feb. 1, Scott said. The next steps until then are finishing the mechanical, electrical and plumbing lines and fixtures, office space, drywall, paint and landscaping.

There are an average 50 construction workers on site, he said.

The project was awarded industrial deal of the year by the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky NAIOP Chapter, a commercial real estate development association.

Everybody loves a big deal, but that doesn’t always make it a good deal, said Josh Gerth, of Cincinnati commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, and president-elect of the NAIOP chapter. Development deals now require a win-win for all parties.

The FedEx Ground project involved four separate land owners, negotiations over road and utilities extensions with Lebanon, financing with Warren County Port Authority and an Ohio road improvement grant, the Schueler Group said.

“The judges tend to look for collaboration and job creation-type deals,” Gerth said. “Deals are so much more complex and take so much more time these days.”

FedEx Ground was one of two major building projects at Lebanon Commerce Center this year. The French fragrance and flavor company MANE Inc. finished its latest expansion of its manufacturing facility on the property in May this year, and in September, completed its new U.S. headquarters and research and development facility, Millard said. The headquarters were relocated from Milford to Lebanon. Total employment is close to 200 workers at MANE in Lebanon, he said.

FedEx Corp., of Memphis, Tenn., is expanding its ground division nationwide, with 11 major hubs added and 500 other facilities expanded or relocated around the country since 2005, according to the company. Service has been made faster by at least one day in most of the country since 2003.

More details about hiring for the Lebanon distribution center will be available closer to opening, FedEx said.

At the end of 2010, FedEx announced it was closing a National Less-Than-Truckload location in West Chester Twp., part of a different division of the package delivery company. Old Dominion Freight Line plans to operate out of the former FedEx facility and is doing site work now, according to West Chester Twp. officials.