McGinley’s Golden Ace Inn
2533 E. Washington St.
317-632-0696

When Irish immigrants John and Ann McGinley opened the Golden Ace in 1934, they installed the same stove that grandson Jim McGinley uses to prepare the bar’s cheeseburgers today. Fried “in cast iron skillets older than any of us,” the burgers are “nothing fancy, just delicious,” McGinley says.

They also serve to soak up the effects of the Golden Ace’s signature shot, a take on the Irish Flag that trades Jameson for the Grand Marnier you typically see at the top of the drink. Its other layers of crème de menthe and Baileys Irish cream easily evoke the Irish colors, but “you have to use your imagination a bit to see the orange,” McGinley concedes of the twist. “But what’s more Irish than Irish whiskey?

The post After 90 Years, The Golden Ace Inn Is Still A Family Affair appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

RESCUE EFFORTS. After suffering from what resembled a case of long COVID, with debilitating symptoms impacting both the economic and cultural vigor of Indianapolis, Mayor Joe Hogsett launched the Downtown Resiliency Strategy last year, a program aimed at addressing housing, infrastructure, public spaces, and economic development with earmarked funds from the city’s $419 million American Rescue Plan purse. Last November, an additional $3.5 million was announced, intending to supplement ongoing efforts in the heart of downtown through a partnership with Downtown Indy Inc.

AT A CROSSROADS. While the city has over 400 square miles to consider, DII focuses only on the area immediately surrounding Monument Circle, totaling about a mile and a half. “We really can help to be more flexible, to help add resources, and to be kind of creative and nimble in ways sometimes that [the city] can’t be because they have so much ground to cover,” says Taylor Schaffer, newly instated president and CEO of DII, adding that the longstanding public-private partnership between these two entities is crucial as Indianapolis evolves and more residents make downtown their home.

SAFETY IN NUMBERS. Despite a negative perception, Mayor Hogsett insists that downtown is the safest neighborhood in the city, accounting for less than 5 percent of all crime. Even so, public-safety measures are a big part of this plan.

PARTNERS IN CRIME. For years, DII has reinforced the IMPD presence downtown through off-duty bike patrols (IMPD officers hired by DII outside of their existing contract with the city), explains Schaffer. Part of the $3.5 million will be used to bolster this partnership, adding more patrols for improved visibility and reassurance to those downtown. 

SMILE! YOU’RE ON CAMERA. Crime-fighting tech will also be funded, including grants to defray the initial cost of B.link cameras to area business owners. B.link cameras aren’t the only eyes IMPD has downtown (there are 128 camera views and license plate readers currently), but the initial rollout of the program—a partnership between IMPD and the Public Safety Foundation—has already proven beneficial. “IMPD has used it successfully to solve cases along with other investments in technology that we’ve made downtown and throughout our neighborhoods,” says Mark Bode, communications director at the mayor’s office.

A KEY TO THE CITY. During the pandemic, a lack of public restrooms created some pretty gross problems. While some of this money will be utilized for expanded alley maintenance and increased power washing, public defecation isn’t the heaping problem it was in 2020. To better address the issue, homeless outreach and public restrooms are also on the agenda. Doug Stephenson, owner of Downtown Comics, says new facilities are essential, but only if there is a plan to have proficient security and staffing, suggesting, “You’ve got to have an attendant all the time, and it’s going to have to have some rules.”

PILOT PROGRAM CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF. Reinforced by $2 million from the 2023 city-county operating budget, an all-new public-safety program will bring a non-law enforcement, clinician-led mental health response team to the streets 24/7, adding to the growing list of services designed to reform the city’s criminal justice system by shifting non-violent citizens toward recovery instead of jail time.

LET ICONS BE ICONS. “I think there needs to be more focus on Monument Circle,” says Stephenson, who has operated his business in the shadow of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument for three decades. He feels like the city is constantly pursuing and promoting the next big project, citing Georgia Street, Mass Ave, and now Eleven Park at the Diamond Chain site, leaving the Circle to deteriorate, both physically and figuratively. “That same progress needs to be applied here,” he says of the enigma that is the Circle.

FULL CIRCLE. Even with its minute representation on the map, the Mile Square generates 20 percent of the city’s tax revenue, making investment in the area essential. Stephenson is hopeful these applications will bring more people downtown, especially to Monument Circle. “You can’t have it all screwed up and dirty and people are afraid to go there. It’s the symbol of the city.” 

The post The Mile Square’s Capital Gains appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Photo courtesy Cummins Inc.

You were born and raised in Columbus, left to work at a couple of other companies, but returned to your hometown to head Cummins. What are the odds?

It’s exciting, and I have to say that when I was growing up here, this wasn’t where I thought I’d end up. But Cummins played a very important part in developing me into the person I am. That was one of the reasons I wanted to lead this company during this important phase of its existence. I’ve of course lived and worked in other places, and that was a great experience that helped me appreciate what Cummins and the Midwest have to offer.

Does being a “local” have any advantages for you?

As we enter into the company’s next period, we’re focused on decarbonizing our industry and positioning Cummins for the future. Certainly I think it’s motivational for our employees and the community that you have a hometown girl. And also an engineer. I spent a lot of my career in engineering, which obviously is an important part of the work we’re doing and will be doing.

What are your major objectives during your tenure as CEO?

One of the biggest goals I have is determining the role that Cummins can play in the decarbonization of our industry, which by itself contributes about 7 percent of global CO2 emissions. It’s not the only thing that matters, but it does matter. We serve applications that are really at the heart of the economy—trucks, buses, and trains, moving goods and people around, power generation for a variety of applications. This work matters a great deal, but we need to decarbonize it. And we need to do it in a way that continues to serve our customers and ensure that our world thrives. Because the need is real. When you consider the record temperatures we’ve seen around the world this year, and the increasing number of extreme weather events, we know it matters.

Columbus makes a lot of diesel engines. Is that a major problem for the company?

Cummins is really uniquely positioned to help with decarbonization because we have these engine-based solutions. We’re accelerating technologies like batteries, electric motors, fuel cells, and hydrogen production, all of which can help to get us to zero-net emissions. I think this gives us a tremendous opportunity. My goal as CEO is to make sure that we play a role as a catalyst in that change, in a way that makes sense for our planet and our economy, and for the people of the world. Doing that unlocks the potential of our own workforce and creates these tremendous opportunities. I think that is the key to our success. Of course, we need to deliver strong financial results as we do this because it allows us to return to our shareholders and invest in our communities.

What’s the timetable for all this?

The journey is going to be a long one, and whether or not we deliver results will define my success as CEO. Our environmental sustainability plan calls for us to reach zero-net emissions by 2050. I doubt I’ll still be CEO at Cummins in 2050, but during my tenure that goal will certainly be very important—essentially overseeing the transition and how it happens.

Cummins made a name for itself with diesel engines, and that’s still a big part of the company. Will you have to switch to electric in the coming years?

It will be a combination of power sources. The most important thing to remember is that our commercial and industrial equipment—things that power construction vehicles, buses, and trucks—have very different energy requirements from, say, a passenger car. Which means there’s no one technology that’s going to work for all of those different applications. For instance, a bus operates somewhat like a passenger car, and regularly returns to its home base. Whereas a mining truck or long-haul truck requires very long endurance or very high power, or both. Also, setting up an all-electric infrastructure for heavy applications could take a long time, so we need bridge technologies that can be fielded now. We can’t wait until we develop the infrastructure and make the technology capable and cost-effective for everything. We have to decarbonize engine-based emissions today, using zero-carbon fuels such as green hydrogen or a biofuel. Some of these may also be part of the long-term solution. Battery electric will play a big role in some applications, but we think we’ll need a range of solutions to solve this issue.

So you believe heavy construction equipment doesn’t really lend itself to electric systems just yet?

Exactly. There are lots of factors to consider. How big does the battery for a heavy-duty piece of equipment have to be? How much does that weigh, and how will that extra weight impact the vehicle’s payload and performance? Also, our customers are concerned about recharging times. So for some of those applications, such as mining and long-haul transport, you might need a hybrid solution composed of a battery and another power source—something that can be fueled quickly. Perhaps a fuel cell or an engine running on low-carbon or zero-carbon fuel. We’re listening carefully to our customers to find out what works best for them.

What do you make of the automobile industry’s sudden rush to develop electric vehicles?

There are two things that are happening with automobiles that aren’t the same for our industry. For one thing, electric-battery technology is more useful for that application in terms of its cost-effectiveness and the range and recharge speed it can provide. So you’re seeing the establishment of the charging infrastructure necessary to support that, and more consumers deciding to switch to electric passenger cars. You will see that happening more quickly than in our industry. When it comes to things like buses, where cities are interested in running zero-emission fleets, fuel cell–based systems might be a more practical choice. Because a pure electric recharging system would be heavier and more time-consuming than for cars.

Everybody’s also trying to build electric semis right now. How about Cummins?

We don’t make trucks. We make the power train. But we were nevertheless the first to demonstrate a battery-electric semi in 2017. Basically just to show off our capabilities with electric power trains and to show that we were embracing the future. These days we’re partnering with a number of original equipment manufacturers, along with some of our vehicle fleet customers that are wanting to evaluate new fuel technologies. So among other things, we’ve made announcements concerning heavy-duty trucks powered by natural-gas fuel cells that we’ve made with Chevron, and with Walmart as a customer. We are also partnering with a couple of truck makers over fuel cell systems. We’re investing in a range of solutions in the truck space, and some of it is at the demonstration phase.

A female Fortune 500 CEO isn’t a total rarity anymore, but it’s still pretty rare. Has it presented any special issues for you?

I get this question a lot. What I always say is that I’m the CEO of Cummins because I’m the right person. I’m sure being a female has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, but it’s really less about that than about having the right background to handle the technological changes the company faces. That, and my demonstrated experience in building and leading a strong team that can deliver results.  

The post Q&A With Cummins CEO Jennifer Rumsey appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Jump to: The Stutz Complex | Bottleworks District | Circle Centre Mall | Elevator Hill | City Market | Pan Am Plaza | AT&T Building | Eleven Park | Old City Hall | Elanco | Cultural Trail | City-County Building | IU Health Downtown Hospital | 16 Tech | Pacers Entertainment District | Monument Circle

Moving Forward

After a devastating few years, city leaders hope the distance between where downtown is and where it’s going will be a short walk. 

IT TAKES ROUGHLY an hour and a 3-mile walk to travel between the future of downtown and its past. One sunny day this summer, I took that walk, simultaneously traversing the current Indianapolis, the one it supplanted, and the one that will soon replace both of them.

Beginning in the Bottleworks District at High Alpha—the venture studio that has created nearly $1 billion in local economic impact through its tech portfolio companies—I walked down Mass Ave toward the old GM Stamping Plant.

For 80 years, the hulking, 2.1 million-square-foot site powered much of the local economy, employing thousands. Instead of portfolio companies, it stamped Chevrolet trucks and buses. But cities and economies change. Abandoned since 2010, the GM Stamping Plant spot is finally moving in the right direction again. Elanco Animal Health broke ground this spring on a $100 million headquarters there, which city leaders hope will transform the blighted industrial area back into the bustling spot it once was. 

As I got closer to the land nestled along the White River, I looked to my right and saw a sign. “FIND WHAT’S NEXT” read a giant poster draped on the Indiana State Museum, almost cheering me on as I got closer to my destination.

That’s what civic boosters here are trying to do right now: find what’s next for a somewhat bleary-eyed city. Indianapolis finds itself in the middle of a “vibe shift.” The pandemic-era term, coined by trend-forecasting consultant Sean Monahan and popularized by New York magazine earlier this year, is exactly what it sounds like: a cultural change, following a period when a “social wavelength starts to feel dated,” according to the magazine’s Allison P. Davis.

The city’s vibe shift has been unfolding over the last year, as officials placed cultural defibrillators on the heart of downtown, attempting to shock it back to life after the twin forces of the pandemic and the new civil rights movement roiled the Mile Square in 2020. Storefronts were boarded up. Crime increased. Open drug use, and occasionally feces, dotted downtown streetscapes. The economic currents laid waste to treasured restaurants like Ed Rudisell’s Black Market on Mass Ave and Rook in Fletcher Place. A downtown that had been on the rise for decades was suddenly in huge trouble.

Now, with the worst of the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the city’s core may be transforming again. Civic leaders spent years preparing downtown to be the kind of place that could host a Super Bowl. Now they want to do something very different: make it a desirable place to live.

“We’ve traditionally thought of our downtown as a place where people work, so we thought about the population of downtown as workers,” says Scarlett Andrews, director of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development. “Then we thought about how to make it a place that people wanted to visit. Now workers want something different. Visitors to some degree want different experiences. But we have a lot of people living downtown, and we need even more.”

Consider this: The occupancy rate of downtown apartments is 97 percent. That suggests an opportunity for more housing. It may also call for new kinds of development.

“We need to change how we think about our public spaces and infrastructure,” Andrews says. “We need a more people-centered approach to what residents, visitors, and workers want.”

What, exactly, does that mean? Back to the vibe shift: In the coming five years, a historic slate of projects will take shape downtown. For the most part, these won’t be the office towers and malls that characterized development here in the late-20th and early-21st centuries. A new kind of neighborhood-based construction, represented by campuses like Bottleworks, Elevator Hill, the Stutz complex, and 16 Tech, seems to be in vogue. Then there’s the city’s partnership with the cultural development firm GANGGANG to create the South Downtown Connectivity Vision Plan, which could reshape everything from the kinds of trees you see planted to the variety of benches you sit on.

Last year, nearly a decade after Super Bowl XLVI, the city finally took down its city-limit signs touting our experience as the host city. It was time for something new. Indianapolis is ready to find what’s next, as the sign at the museum urged.

I told Jeff Bennett, Indy’s deputy mayor of community development, about my walk, and asked him what he made of the new Indianapolis that will spring up alongside that path in the next few years. 

“You can stand and point at historic resources that have already become revitalized campuses like Bottleworks,” Bennett says. “Then you can point at sites like the stamping plant that will be changed over the next few years. No city is fixed in time. They’re always changing. You’re either moving forward, or you’re moving backward, but you’re never standing still. And I think that corridor you walked represents that—the city is moving forward.” —Adam Wren

The Stutz Complex

TAKING UP an entire city block, the 111-year-old Stutz has seen good times come and go more than once downtown. Turner Woodard, who saved it from the wrecking ball in 1992, recently sold the complex of eight buildings to New York–based SomeraRoad. The developer displaced many of the artists who had studios there, but the rehabilitation of the building looks impressive. Basel Bataineh, principal at SomeraRoad, suggests that construction of phase one is nearing the end and ground-level amenities will open soon.

Pedestrians will be able to wander around the buildings through landscaped alleyways, encountering the Stutz vintage car museum, event space, restaurants, and some art studios. Pattern, run by Polina Osherov, will be one of the first tenants. Captivated by the Stutz community in 2007 during an artist open house, Osherov, a commercial photographer, has been renting studio space there ever since and is striving to keep the artistic legacy of the building at the forefront of the new development. “Things are evolving,” she says, but expresses excitement for the property’s new artist residencies and retail incubator.

Other tenants will include Cafe Patachou, Myriad Health and Fitness, Grounded Plant and Floral Co., and an Industrious coworking space. Despite grumbling from some artists who had rented at the Stutz, Bataineh notes that SomeraRoad maintains support of the Stutz Artist Association through its studio space and art events such as the BUTTER Art Fair over Labor Day weekend.

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Bottleworks District

WALKING AROUND the first phase of the Bottleworks District at the east end of Mass Ave, you might momentarily forget that a pandemic had decimated the rest of downtown. The site of the old Art Deco Coca-Cola bottling plant—redeveloped by Hendricks Commercial Properties last year—has been thriving. A swanky boutique hotel, bustling food hall, arts cinema, and several retail shops have had no problem attracting visitors. No wonder a multimillion-dollar second phase of the development is already underway. Here’s what’s in the, ahem, works:

Building 1

Scheduled completion: late 2024

The five-story, warehouse-style flatiron building was designed to maximize the triangular footprint while blending into the historic Mass Ave district.

Despite the apocalyptic market for commercial office space elsewhere, Hendricks says it has seen strong demand for offices at Bottleworks. They’re building nearly 250,000 square feet of it.

The Lumina Foundation will occupy the entire top floor, and IG Global half of the second.

The ground-floor retail spaces will prioritize locally owned shops, extending the shopping district north.

Although a tenant has not yet been announced, a corner first-floor restaurant will offer outdoor dining.

The outdoor decks should provide great people-watching along College Avenue.

Building 2

Scheduled completion: late 2025

A spectacular rooftop deck overlooking Mass Ave and College will rival the one at High Alpha, which has its headquarters at Bottleworks.

The four-story, linear, warehouse-style building will host offices ranging from 1,800 to 13,200 square feet.

The Bottleworks parking garage will double to 550 spaces, easing the pressure to find one of those rare street spots. 

More ground-floor retail and restaurants will feature high ceilings and oversized windows.

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The Case for a Greener Downtown

Taylor Firestine, Walk & Bike Coordinator for Health by Design, insists that Indy needs to think bigger than just adding trees.

I RECENTLY learned that Marion County was 98 percent forest when people started settling here. We can’t go back to that, but we can adapt our built environment to provide more space for trees. Green space is absolutely essential if we want an attractive downtown not only for visitors, but for people who are living here. It’s infrastructure that helps improve public health, which the Trust for Public Land looks at when they rank the 100 largest cities in the United States based on parks and green space. On their 2022 ParkScore Index, Indy isn’t even on the list.

Obviously, downtown has a ton of hardscape. There are a lot of buildings, parking lots, and streets. But when you bring in nature, those edges soften and things feel more inviting. Plus, street trees are the superorganisms of a city. They soak up excess precipitation and provide a cooler microclimate. If it were 95 degrees out and I had the choice between walking down Delaware Street in the Old Northside or walking down Delaware Street between I-65 and Ohio, I’d definitely go through the Old Northside because of the mature street trees.

It’s worth pointing out that there’s not a total lack of green space downtown; it’s just not used to its fullest potential. American Legion Mall and University Park are passive spaces, for example, and people are generally attracted to places where others are congregating. We’ve seen this at Lugar Plaza. Last fall, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail partnered with Indy Jazz Fest for an event that felt really comfortable and inviting there.

Here’s the other thing about green space and why it’s an essential component of a healthy downtown: climate change. We know we’re going to experience hotter temperatures and more rainfall. Extreme weather events are going to put stress on downtown infrastructure that is well over a century old. Building up our tree canopy and biodiversity can help us be resilient to the changes that are coming. Look at the Transit Center. The landscaping includes lots of trees and bioswales that serve as natural drains for when we have heavy rainfall. It’s a great example of what has already been done in our city.  —As told to Dawn Olsen

Circle Centre Mall

ONCE THE RETAIL centerpiece of our state capital, Circle Centre is in crisis. If you’ve walked through recently, it was probably to get from one side of town to another without braving the weather. The cavernous halls don’t offer much in the way of upscale shopping anymore, and plans for change seem about as stalled as its escalators. But recent developments show slow movement toward a solution.

Since Simon sold its share of the mall in February, the ownership group, Circle Centre Development Co., has been soliciting ideas from architecture partners and searching for the right developer to completely reimagine the space. “We’ve confirmed a redevelopment of Circle Centre will need to create 24/7 demand and opportunities for increased street-level retail through residential, retail, entertainment, and other district-type uses that will complement downtown’s evolution,” says Adam Collins, an attorney representing the mall’s owners.

Portia Bailey-Bernard, vice president of Indianapolis economic development at Indy Chamber, says that while the mall fit the needs of downtown when it was built in 1995, it should progress and reflect the city’s evolution. “That’s continuing to provide a space for visitors who come, but adding the needs of a downtown resident population that continues to grow,” she says.

Which doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning retail. While plenty of businesses have closed up shop, others, such as outrageous newcomer Sugar Factory, have seen initial success. A few niche storefronts inside the mall, including locally owned Circle City Souvenirs, have been able to hold on where larger, corporate stores could not. “We know that malls around the world need to reinvent themselves,” says Bailey-Bernard. “And it can be a daunting task. But it’s also exciting and brings new opportunities to a space that honestly has so many possibilities.”

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Elevator Hill

EVER SINCE Angie’s List sold to IAC and vacated its massive Elevator Hill headquarters in 2017, much of the progress it fostered along East Washington Street has stagnated. But former Angie’s List CEO Bill Oesterle and others purchased the property, and with the help of development firm 1820 Ventures, they’ve slowly been transforming it into what they hope will be one of the city’s premier mixed-use districts (think nearby Bottleworks).

For now, the campus is a collection of industrial space, historic buildings, parking lots, and homes. Gathyr, a 103-unit residential building at Market and Dickerson presently under construction, is scheduled to begin leasing next spring. As much as $250 million in development will follow. Other phases include another multifamily residential project on Market Street and a 60,000-square-foot office building on Washington Street adjacent to an expected IndyGo Blue Line stop.

The redevelopment of Elevator Hill is going to be a yearslong ride. But residents like Scotty Wilson, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, are optimistic about the potential of the project, saying new mixed-use sites need to be a symbiosis between the new development and the surrounding community. “It just doesn’t work when one tries to exist without regard for the other,” he says, adding that the team at 1820 has continually engaged the neighborhood.

Sarah St. Aubin, owner of Futuro and a private salon on the site, is also pleased, comparing the future of the area to a mini Austin, Texas. “This is a safe place for businesses that want to succeed,” she says.

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The Case for a Kid-Centric Downtown

Want to make the Mile Square better? Think small. Like, pint-sized.

IN 2008, Mayor Greg Ballard proposed building a Chinatown in Indianapolis from scratch. That was a dumb idea. But there was something admirable about Ballard’s willingness to float a crazy concept like that. That kind of vulnerability—a precondition for visionary thinking—has been sorely missing here lately.

The good news is that I have no fear of looking dumb. So here’s a free idea for the civic brain trust to kick around: Let’s make our downtown aggressively and unapologetically kid-friendly. I’m not saying turn all downtown surface parking into playgrounds (although that would be cool). I’m saying we should spend the next 20 years making downtown Indy the safest, most accessible, and most enjoyable downtown for families in America.

This doesn’t mean sacrificing grown-up zones like Mass Ave and Fountain Square. It means addressing all the ways the downtown ecosystem is currently hostile to people with kids.

I moved my own kids downtown seven years ago. I love living here, but it comes at a cost. Our streets prioritize fast-moving cars. Good schools are in limited supply. Daycare? Ha! Yet, here I am—and so are lots of other families. The demand for downtown living is borne out in the real estate market, where the median price of a single-family home is $431,000—significantly higher than $359,000 in suburban Fishers.

Many people with kids want to live downtown. We should do everything possible to welcome them. If you don’t believe me, ask Brent Toderian, a city planner who has been preaching the gospel of family-centric downtowns for years. Toderian formerly served as the chief planner of Vancouver, where more than 7,000 children live downtown. He says Vancouver’s success “proves the myth that families won’t live downtown is complete garbage.”

In the 1980s, a harebrained-sounding “sports strategy” saved our moribund downtown. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, is the perfect time to take another big swing. Call it the “G-rated strategy.” The goal should be to make downtown fun, safe, and livable—basically a more diverse, densely populated, and culturally interesting version of the suburbs.

People often say Indy is a great place to raise a family. They don’t mean downtown. But take my advice, and in 20 years, they will.  —Matt Gonzales

City Market

THIS HISTORIC food hall suffered a triple blow over the last two years. It was hammered by the pandemic, surrounded by construction for much of 2020–2021, and lost a good chunk of its customers when many City-County Building employees recently moved to the new Community Justice Campus. It’s no surprise that several of the stalls now sit empty. The city, which owns City Market, has chosen a proposal to build a new mixed-use housing development on the east wing. Will it be enough to keep the doors open and attract new customers? We asked three vendors for their ideas on how to improve one of the city’s former gems.

“I really want this place to continue as a market, but they need to make it more modern. We especially need to attract younger people. They’re the ones coming downtown and spending money. We have Tomlinson Tap, which is great, but it closes at 9 p.m. So it’s not a place a lot of younger people will go. How about longer hours? Redoing the east wing is a good idea. We could cater to more downtown residents. But for now, I’d like to see a lot more outdoor events—especially live music—while it’s still warm.”

“The issue that we had with the crowds of panhandlers outside during the pandemic has pretty much gone away. The street is clean, and the police are around most of the time. That’s good, but a lot of vendors have left. They couldn’t pay their bills. The city needs to recruit new ones, but also help those who have stayed with controlled rent. Losing the courts was a big loss. I hope they can fill that empty space with new offices or apartments. We also need help with PR, commercials, and special offers to get people here.”

“We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs over 33 years here. The Super Bowl was great for business, while the 2007 remodel nearly shut us down. I think City Market needs to pour more money into the plazas. The east plaza is an eyesore, but I’m thrilled with the possibility of apartments there. I’d like to see a couple of places for outdoor dining, a nice little cafe, and exterior lighting so people know we’re here. And maybe it’s time to consider privatization. I think it might be better run and more efficient, although I realize that might mean a rent increase. It has been a market since the 1880s and it’s a special place, so we need to find a way to keep it going.”

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Pan Am Plaza

SOMEDAY, when people talk about The Plaza hotel, maybe they’ll be referring to this ambitious project instead of that one in New York. Kite Realty Group plans to build a $300 million, 40-story-high, 800-room skyscraper hotel on the site of Pan Am Plaza. Development of the hotel, called the Signia, will accompany Kite’s simultaneous expansion of the convention center. Delayed two years because of the pandemic, preliminary site work began this past fall. Demo of the two skating rinks and rebuilding of the underground garage (the 12-story office building stays) will follow, with cranes in the air and construction underway by next spring. Since you won’t be able to check in until 2025, here’s a peek at the amenities of what will be downtown’s biggest hotel.

The Sky Lounge bar for 300 people will boast floor-to-ceiling windows, and include a mezzanine champagne bar plus a terrace overlooking Lucas Oil Stadium.The full-service spa, salon, and fitness center will make you as fresh as the new building. Two restaurants and a grab-and-go market will feed guests who don’t want to leave the property. On the fifth floor, an outdoor pool and entertainment deck will overlook Georgia Street.A large sunken garden between the hotel and Pan Am building will offer a great place to admire the architecture. A three-story lobby will include a grand staircase and wraparound bar.A massive skylight above reception will provide a neck-bending view to the top of the hotel.Between Illinois Street and Capitol Avenue, a new road will allow for easier dropoff and pickup.Somewhere inside, there will be an unmarked speakeasy behind a hidden door—if you can find it.

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AT&T Building

THERE ARE plenty of adaptive-reuse projects in the works around town, but none as promising as the conversion of the nearly 50-year-old AT&T building (220 N. Meridian St.) by Keystone Corp. After sitting mostly empty since 2009, the 20-story office tower, now called 220 Meridian, has new life as a building mostly dedicated to luxury apartments. The retail and dining spaces at street level, art installations in the lobby, rooftop pool, sky-high green space, and remaining AT&T offices occupying the top three floors make this a classic mixed-use development.

“These new luxury residences and retail spaces have transformed the building,” says Ersal Ozdemir, chairman and CEO at Keystone Corp. “They’re going to reinvigorate the area and attract talent and opportunities for a live-work-play environment in the heart of downtown.”

Drawn to the floor-to-ceiling windows and a six-minute commute to work, Divyani Paul was one of the first residents at 220 Meridian. “It’s a good place to be—you can walk lots of places,” says the postdoctoral scientist at Lilly Genetic Medicine, who relocated from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

High-rise office conversions aren’t the norm … yet. But Scarlett Andrews, director of the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development, says housing is in high demand downtown and that converting more office space abandoned by the work-from-home movement is a priority. The eight-story Wulsin Building at 222 E. Ohio St., currently in planning stages, is also expected to be restructured into apartments. “It matches up with what our peer cities are telling us,” Andrews says. “Cincinnati, Chicago, Louisville are also seeing these kinds of conversions of tower buildings into residential and hotel.” DMD has put together an internal working group to help facilitate the process for developers and property owners in the future, indicating more conversions are to come.

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Eleven Park 

EVEN IN A downtown awash with major construction projects, a $1 billion budget stands out. That’s how much Indy Eleven owner Ersal Ozdemir proposes to spend on a mixed-use development called Eleven Park that will include a 20,000-seat stadium for the soccer team, retail, office space, apartments, and a boutique hotel. The triangular plot that currently houses the Diamond Chain Company will soon complete a hat trick of stadiums in an area that already includes Victory Field and Lucas Oil Stadium.

It has been a long time coming. Rumors of a new Indy Eleven stadium have been around since 2014. But the Elanco campus now in the works across the river from the new site, along with the new Henry Street bridge and proposed Cultural Trail expansion that will connect the projects, became added incentives for the property. “We believe this site is the best place to invest, knowing it will have a transformational impact to the south side of Indianapolis,” Ozdemir says.

Tim Wise, president of Browning Day, the architect of record for the project, agrees that the location is a game-changer for the city. “While we studied many, many locations in Indy, we always felt that this was a pivotal site for downtown and for the Eleven,” he says. Wise would know. His firm has overseen the construction and renovations of many sports venues that have shaped our city, including the Hoosier Dome and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Funding for the $1 billion project is not yet fully secured, but money will come from both the Indy Eleven and Ozdemir’s construction business, Keystone Corp., as well as city and state contributions and tax incentives. Those details and important factors such as environmental remediation are still being worked through, but a tentative timeline projects an opening game in the spring of 2025.

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Old City Hall 

AT A GLANCE, Old City Hall, which served as Indy’s seat of government from 1910 until the City-County Building debuted in 1962, seems like a shoo-in for redevelopment. It’s loaded with the sort of luxe features one expects in a vintage building, including marble; a stained-glass dome 85 feet above the lobby; and a massive, three-story rotunda. 

Yet it has stood empty for the better part of the 21st century.

Not that there haven’t been tenants. After city government abandoned it, the four-story structure housed the Indiana State Museum for a couple of decades, and Central Library for a couple of years after that. Since then, various organizations have eyeballed the property, some coming tantalizingly close to taking it on. The Indianapolis Star flirted with moving there, as did the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. It briefly became a pop-up art gallery when the city hosted Super Bowl XLVI, and came within a hair’s breadth of becoming a 21c Museum Hotels project, before that, too, fizzled.

So what’s the problem?

Some say the issue is obvious. Remember the building’s rotunda? It’s huge. It cuts a massive amount of square footage out of each of the building’s floors, drastically reducing the space that a developer might dedicate to, say, offices or shops. “It has a giant hole in the middle,” says Adam Thies, Indy’s former director of metropolitan development. “That hole, which is the atrium, is absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. But it was built in 1910 as a civic monument. They certainly weren’t worrying about leasable square footage.”

And so the fabled structure collects dust, waiting for the proper suitor. At least it’s free of pigeon droppings and water damage. The city pays around $60,000 to $100,000 a year to tackle various maintenance issues. Now that the City-County Building seems headed for sale and redevelopment, there’s been a lot of talk about moving the mayor’s office and other municipal functions back to Old City Hall.

But so far, it’s just talk. For now, Indy seems content to keep the place in working order, and wait.

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Elanco 

JAY NAPOLEON is almost giddy when he talks about what’s on the horizon for the site of the old GM Stamping Plant across the White River from downtown. Napoleon lives a stone’s throw from the sprawling 102-acre parcel, which sat vacant and fenced off for 11 years, a monstrous eyesore for residents of the adjacent Valley neighborhood. “No one project can touch everything,” he says, “but this one comes close.”

In April, Elanco Animal Health Inc. broke ground on its new $100 million global headquarters there, which will eventually employ more than 1,500 people. Renderings show a gleaming six-story office building at the heart of its 40-acre campus. In a nod to the past, Elanco plans to keep a third of the historic crane bay left from the GM days, incorporating it into an event space. 

The city and state ponied up $221 million in incentives to seal the deal and make way for what Napoleon calls the “the Silicon Valley of animal health.” It comes with myriad utility and infrastructure improvements. A new Henry Street bridge and plaza across the White River will connect Elanco’s campus to downtown. Realigning the adjacent White River Parkway 300 feet west will allow for the expansion of White River State Park. Oliver Avenue will become a tree-lined boulevard with a shared path for bikes and pedestrians, ultimately lined with shops and restaurants.

Elanco only owns about 40 percent of the enormous GM plot, so there are still questions about how the rest of it will be utilized. The Indianapolis Zoo acquired 12 acres at the northwest corner, which for now it will use for overflow parking. The state of Indiana controls the remaining acreage. The master plan envisions a mix of office space, retail, restaurants, and residential development across the rest of the site.

Even Elanco itself doesn’t move in until 2025, though, so the wait isn’t over just yet for the long-suffering neighborhood.

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Cultural Trail

BY ANY MEASURE, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail has been a home run for the city. Built for $63 million using donations and federal transportation grants, the original 8-mile bike- and pedestrian-friendly span opened in 2013. The ICT connects six of the city’s cultural districts, and was immediately hailed worldwide as a one-of-a-kind urban amenity. For the first time, two new sections are now underway—one along Indiana Avenue and one along South Street. Here’s an overview of the $30 million expansion.

A bridge being built over Fall Creek for the 16 Tech innovation district will link with the westernmost tip of ICT’s new 10th Street section, providing access to the innovation district’s own Tech Trail.

Another carefully redesigned intersection will rationalize the somewhat-chaotic five-point junction of Indiana Avenue, 10th Street, and Oscar Robertson Boulevard.

The new section also provides a jumping-off point to the nearby White River Wapahani Trail.

The Indiana Avenue extension includes a large pedestrian plaza, garden plantings, and a traffic light at the intersection of Indiana Avenue, Paca Street, and West St. Clair St.

While the trail’s original sections are known for their permanent art installations, the new paths will feature temporary exhibits that will change regularly.

The ICT’s South Street extension will offer access to Lucas Oil Stadium, and create a safe pedestrian path between the stadium and area restaurants, such as the Slippery Noodle.

The southernmost portion of the Indiana Avenue extension will terminate at the Indianapolis Canal Walk.

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City-County Building 

THE RECENT debut of the Community Justice Campus on the southeast side has left the City-County Building, opened in 1962 and for years Indy’s tallest structure, half empty and seemingly with one foot in the grave.

It’s assumed that the rest of the city’s municipal organs will someday be transplanted to less dispiriting digs, meaning a new owner and a new purpose must be found for the CCB. Either that, or the blocky, hulking structure could meet the wrecking ball.

Preliminary studies estimate the building’s deferred maintenance costs at $40 million, and it would require even more to renovate the complex into some sort of residential/retail/office combo. But that price may be worth paying, given the CCB’s prime location in the heart of the Market East cultural district, sitting a stone’s throw from the 360 Market Square apartment tower, Cummins distribution headquarters, and the Julia M. Carson Transit Center. Though the building isn’t currently for sale, last year, the city asked for proposals for reuse of the roughly 2-acre parcel. It got three serious replies.

“All three responses were wellthought-out from reputable developers, and each included a mix of housing and retail development,” says Sonya J. Seeder, real estate administrator for the city of Indianapolis. “It’s clear from the responses that the development community is willing to invest in dense housing downtown.”

Richard G. Lugar Plaza, which fronts the CCB on Washington Street, was recently converted into a half-acre urban play zone complete with seating areas, a splash pad, and a lawn for everything from picnicking to Frisbee tossing. It’s overseen by the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which runs by the plaza. ICT management would love to see this space survive, whatever the fate of the rest of the CCB.

“The Cultural Trail, the city, and community partners are committed to Lugar Plaza remaining a thriving and accessible place for everyone,” says Carrie Tracy, director of community engagement at ICT. “Its connectivity to the Cultural Trail will improve the experience for whatever happens next with the City-County Building.”

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IU Health Downtown Hospital

WHEN COMPLETED around 2026, the new IU Health Downtown Hospital will become an architectural landmark—and a monument of sorts to these uncertain times.

It will take about $1.6 billion to build the new medical facility, which features three inpatient towers that will stand between 14 and 16 stories tall, and two rooftop heliports. Located across 16th Street from IU Methodist, it’s meant to replace the older hospital. After the new place opens, Methodist’s grounds will be radically reconfigured (with bulldozers and wrecking balls), with surviving structures integrated via elevated walkways to the new facility.

Though construction began only recently, planning started years ago. First announced in 2015, the hospital was originally meant to deal with what, at the time, was healthcare’s biggest trend—more and more outpatient procedures and fewer inpatient stays. In fact, the new facility was originally slated to offer no more beds than the care centers it will replace.

Then came COVID-19. Inpatient visits across the IU Health network rose to unprecedented levels, forcing it to use conference rooms and other random spaces to handle the overflow. So now the goal is for the new hospital design to maintain maximum flexibility—the better to face The Great Unknown. The structure still features large ground-level outpatient facilities, but can also hold 672 single-patient private rooms in its three towers.

By the way, if the building’s name sounds somewhat unimaginative, it’s because it’s likely a placeholder. At some point before the new hospital opens, it may receive the moniker of a deep-pocketed philanthropist who will make (one can safely assume) a breathtakingly large donation toward its construction.

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16 Tech

LOCATED ON a 50-acre plot in what was formerly a gritty, near-westside industrial area, 16 Tech bills itself as an “innovation ecosystem” where everyone from startup-business owners to makers to artisanal restaurateurs can come together to develop their ideas. Over the next few years, the area will see lots of new additions.

Set for completion by the end of 2023, a new bridge with separate lanes for cars, pedestrians, and bicycles will span Fall Creek at 10th Street. It will link 16 Tech with IUPUI and downtown medical facilities, and knit together an extension of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

The Tech Trail, which debuts by 2025, will snake through the length of the 16 Tech campus.

A new, approximately 250-unit onsite apartment complex broke ground this summer. It will be completed in 2024.

A hotel will be added to the campus at some point, though a lot about this project remains undecided. It will likely open around 2025.

The Amp, 16 Tech’s artisan marketplace (and incubator for new restaurant concepts), recently added an ice cream establishment called Scoopz to its lineup of 21 food stands. It’s also putting in additional infrastructure so it can host musical acts and other events. What’s more, Purdue University Marion County Extension Office will debut a teaching center there. It will offer everything from gardening tips to hydroponics classes.

The Central Green, scheduled to debut in 2024, will offer green space and a possible venue for art installations, musical events, and outdoor gatherings.

When completed in 2024, Innovation Building 2 will provide an additional 140,000 square feet of office space.

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The Case for a Tech-Centric Downtown

Yaw Aning, cofounder of the shipping tracking software company Malomo, thinks the growing tech scene here could rejuvenate the city’s center.

THERE HAS NEVER been a better time to launch a company in Indianapolis than right now. There’s more capital flowing to the area and more organizations—Powderkeg, gBETA, and TechPoint—that support startups than ever before. The Orr Fellowship is grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Startup Ladies shine a spotlight on women business owners. Techstars recently launched a sports accelerator here.

But I would love to see more partnerships between large organizations and early-stage companies. What if Eli Lilly partnered with a startup and became one of their clients? It would signal to people that the business had value and would be worth investing in.

There’s also a lot of empty space downtown right now, and it would be worthwhile to get some young companies in there. Launching a company can be a lonely journey. It’s great when you can talk to other founders who are at a similar stage and are having the same challenges. Getting together inspires new ideas and new energy, and companies can solve their problems faster. Having High Alpha and Salesforce downtown is great. But if we increase the density of tech companies building, working, and learning together, it would reenergize the area. That’s one of the nice things about having an office at Union Campus downtown. There are a bunch of early-stage companies in that building, and everyone can collaborate, talk, and mingle.

In general, I think downtown is very tech-friendly. Our ecosystem includes talent from Purdue, Notre Dame, IU, and Rose-Hulman, and there are some later-stage companies and executives who can provide resources to new entrepreneurs and teach them how to operate their companies.

There are systemic challenges that people of color and women face in launching companies here. That’s because the venture capital industry has, historically, been dominated by white men. They don’t always understand things outside their sphere of direct knowledge. Founders of color are getting overlooked and going outside the state to look for capital. That’s a huge miss for us.

Providing funding to underrepresented groups is critical. Kelli Jones has been in the Indy tech scene for a while, though. She cofounded Sixty8 Capital, which specifically funds Black, brown, women, and LGBTQ-led startups. When we launched Malomo three years ago downtown, we raised our seed funding from two Black-led venture capital funds. That matters a lot.  —As told to Dawn Olsen

Pacers Entertainment District

PACERS SPORTS & Entertainment isn’t just expanding its footprint, it’s creating a new destination for fans, tourists, and locals alike. In addition to the $360 million renovation of Gainbridge Fieldhouse now in its final stage, a massive new plaza outside and multiple buildings nearby are underway. It’s all part of a 2019 deal with the city and Capital Improvement Board to keep the Indiana Pacers in town another 25 years.

The newly named Bicentennial Unity Plaza, funded through $28.5 million from the Lilly Endowment, is a game-changer on its own. The destination right outside Gainbridge Fieldhouse includes a community basketball court that will become an ice rink (larger than Rockefeller Center’s) come winter. Visitors can rent skates, sip hot chocolate, and take in the two mammoth stainless-steel sculptures created by Honduran artist Herman Mejia that reflect the city’s history, its diversity, and striving for unity.

And there’s more. Borrowing from projects built by the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks, PSE and Pacers owner Herb Simon are planning a mixed-use development that will link to the Georgia Street entertainment district. PSE will build a $20 million commercial building adjacent to the Fieldhouse with a restaurant, event space, and basement speakeasy. Simon hopes to also build two high-
rise towers where the old CSX building is at Pennsylvania and Georgia streets. One, an upscale hotel, would connect to the Fieldhouse via a skybridge. The other, a 26-story apartment building, would go up directly south of the hotel.

The Fieldhouse fully reopens before the start of the new NBA season, while the outdoor plaza debuts next spring and the mixed-use building in time for the 2024 All-Star Game.

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The Case for a Culture-Focused Downtown

By investing in the creative economy, GANGGANG cofounder Mali Jeffers believes the city can create a livelier core.

A FEW DECADES ago, Indy went all in on sports. We said, “This is our thing.” Now, imagine doing that again, but with the arts. Let’s create infrastructure and plans centered around that, including more public art, more cultural startups, and more cultural entrepreneurs.

It feels like the creative ecosystem is changing for the better. GANGGANG started talking about the creative economy two years ago, but now the Department of Metropolitan Development is talking about it, too. They recognize that creativity and culture isn’t just visual art. It’s also storytelling and leisure activities and other experiences that bring us downtown. We’re actually working with DMD on the South Downtown Connectivity Vision Plan. We’re asking creatives to help us design the place. We want to know, as well as city government officials and Indy civic leaders want to know, how we can make our city feel more cosmopolitan.

Another thing we have going on right now is In the Mix, a project with Downtown Indy. We’re recruiting creative Black- and brown-owned businesses to open retail stores downtown. I think more people of culture will move downtown based on the success of that.

One of our goals is to attract CultureCon and conventions like it to Indianapolis. A more culturally savvy downtown will make or break that ask. Visitors, of course, go where the vibrancy is. That’s why the cities in America that attract the most tourists lead with culture.

BUTTER is our biggest tangible example of investing in the creative economy so far. It’s an art fair that prioritizes the artists, not the audience. When we center on creatives, Black artists in this case, we have cooler and richer and more active cities. —As told to Dawn Olsen

Monument Circle

FOR A ROUNDABOUT that gave the city its nickname and still serves as its center, Monument Circle has struggled for decades to find an identity. A shortage of street-level retail and programming has relegated it to a place few people who don’t work there visit. In late 2019, Shining A Light, a $7.6 million installation of projectors and speakers, debuted to solve that problem. Unfortunately, the unveiling was quickly overshadowed by the pandemic.

The two years since haven’t been pretty. In addition to shuttered businesses and increased safety concerns, cleaning crews had to power wash the Circle regularly as the city’s homeless set up camp there. Not surprisingly, the nightly light show has yet to find a large audience. “The reality of our summer daylight savings time is you have to be downtown pretty late to see it,” says Bob Schultz, interim president and CEO of Downtown Indy Inc., of the technology.

As hybrid work became common, empty office spaces also contributed to the depleted scene. David Moore, a managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, who leases the Salesforce Tower and Salesforce Circle Building, acknowledges that many employees aren’t back in the office full time. But he says leasing activity has increased significantly since last year. “It’s not back to the vibrancy that it was pre-pandemic, but the trajectory, in my opinion, is heading in that direction,” he says.

Jim Walker, executive director of the cultural group Big Car, challenges the notion that there’s not enough traffic to enliven Monument Circle. “There’s not necessarily a lack of people there, there’s just a lack of places to make them stay,” he says, explaining that the Circle can feel unsafe, unwelcoming, and without many retail and restaurant offerings. In an effort to reverse this cycle, Big Car and Downtown Indy brought Spark, a placemaking project that originated in 2015, back to the Circle this summer. With experiences such as pingpong, chess, and live music, it has been a small but welcome way for visitors to engage with one another and the city’s centerpiece. 

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The post The Future Of Downtown appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Photo courtesy Monon 30

TRAVELING the Monon Trail, pedestrians can explore art galleries and lounge in the Japanese gardens of Carmel, or peruse vintage and antiques stores and grab a bite to eat in the restaurants of Broad Ripple. However, as the trail nears downtown, travelers are met with dilapidated industrial plants and blighted lumberyards.

That is, until they come across The Cradle at Monon 30 (@monon30_indy). Like an oasis amid a desert, The Cradle’s lush greenery, brightly colored furniture, and cheery hanging lights contrast jarringly with its bleak surroundings. Yet, a closer look reveals The Cradle pays homage to its industrial roots. The greenery is planted in shipping crates and the brightly colored furniture is built out of painted pallets. The band on the stage plays below an old Monon Railroad train light, and food vendors operate out of repurposed shipping containers.

The community event space opened earlier this summer, offering live music and food Friday and Saturday nights. Local development company Monon 30 renovated the abandoned lumberyard with their unique style, which Monon 30 Vice President of Communications Annie Whistler refers to as “inviting industrial.”

Monon 30 Vice President of Events Molly Kruger says the group wanted to preserve the location’s history by keeping the shipping containers, but making the space feel lively required creative thinking.

“Containers sometimes can be a bit sterile, not overly warm and welcoming,” Kruger says. “The idea is to soften them up with plants and really give the space a tropical, warm, loving community feel.”

The venue opens to the public free of charge. Food and drink are available for purchase, and yard games are offered. Kruger says approximately 700 people attended last Saturday, but this is merely the start of a much larger project.

“This is just the beginning of a 50-acre development,” Kruger says. “We wanted to get things started for the summertime, to see what the turnout would be and to prove to the city that we could really make something of this area and revitalize it.”

Rendering courtesy Monon 30

Monon 30 is part of Monon Development Group, a coalition of 10 developers with ambitious plans to transform 50 acres of blighted Indianapolis property into apartments, retail space, restaurants, recreational areas, and event venues. The Cradle marks the first part of the development to open, but remains a work in progress. It will eventually include indoor event space and sports facilities. This fall, Monon Development Group will break ground on The Domino, an apartment complex named for its role as the first domino to fall in the long line of major projects. The massive undertaking, though daunting, is long overdue, Kruger says.

“How many times have I ridden my bike down the Monon over the past 10 years just to realize there is nothing here?” Kruger says. “Basically from the fairgrounds to Indianapolis, it’s very industrial, very cold, there’s not a lot happening. We saw an opportunity to truly revitalize the neighborhood and breathe some life into things.”

The development follows the lead of other areas that have centered public trails in their urban planning. Whistler views proximity to the Monon Trail as a resource to Monon 30’s development plan.

“You see what Carmel does, what Broad Ripple does along the Monon. You see what downtown does along the Cultural Trail. Why not here?” Whistler says. “There’s just been a gap for no good reason other than no one’s taken it on. That trail access is such an amenity.”

Photo courtesy Monon 30

The 50 acres not only includes former industrial plants, but also properties deemed “environmental liabilities.” Whistler says she loves The Cradle’s reimagining of pallets and shipping containers because it embodies Monon 30’s ability to create sustainable community spaces.

“My personal favorite part is that we are taking properties that are environmental liabilities and we’re making them assets. You can feel good about it.”

Developers can also feel good about the fact that no residents are expected to be displaced by any of the projects. Additionally, the new apartments will include both market-rate and affordable housing. Both Kruger and Whistler make a point to differentiate between revitalization and gentrification. They say Monon 30 strives to listen to feedback from surrounding neighborhoods and include the existing community in their plans. Kruger says the local response has been largely positive.

“There’s no way we could do this alone, nor would we want to do it alone,” Kruger says. “Even passersby will stop and ask us what’s going on. Whether they’ve been here 50 years or whether they just moved in two weeks ago, I feel like the response is the same—they’re so excited we’re revitalizing the neighborhood. We just want to make sure it’s an affordable option for all.”

Chris White, a Monon 30 principal partner, holds Zoom meetings with residents of the project’s surrounding neighborhoods each Friday. He understands community support is crucial to the project’s success, Whistler says.

“He’s not a wrecking ball, he doesn’t just come in and abruptly change things,” Whistler says. “He’s been very delicate in how he’s handled those relationships and really takes into account what people want, what they think, and their livelihoods.”

The post Monon 30 Breathes Life Into Urban Blight appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

THE LIFE CYCLE of a vacant industrial building typically goes one of two ways: abandoned for years and left to decay until it’s finally razed, or neglected for years until someone with money and a bright idea steps in. What happens next in that second scenario, says one Indianapolis artist, is: “You put a couple of weird artists and musicians in there. Before you know it, the caffeine spot shows up, the brewery shows up, you see a couple of pride flags. Then, once you see that woman jogging in yoga pants with the baby stroller, it’s over, man. That’s when you know you can’t afford the rent or you’re not going to get your lease renewed.”

The Stutz Building seems to be following that second path. The home of the Stutz Motor Car Company (1914–37), then Eli Lilly & Company’s packaging division (1940–82), the site sat vacant for a decade until developer Turner Woodard purchased it in 1993 and created a home for small businesses. To quote The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, “Artists soon followed.” At its peak, almost 90 painters and sculptors had studios in the Stutz, and their annual open house was a highlight of the city’s arts calendar.

“Turner took somewhat of a risk taking on that hulking property,” says Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks. “He really brought it to life.”

Last year, Woodard sold the Stutz (seven connected buildings at 10th Street and Capitol Avenue, and an eighth nearby) to New York–based developer SomeraRoad, which has been investing in Indiana properties for a few years. Since the purchase, the company has been replacing the windows, installing new heating and air conditioning, and repairing the façade, with plans to convert the building into a “creative office campus or vertical village.” The new Stutz promises to be a destination for nearby IU Health workers, and soon will be home to restaurants (Cafe Patachou, Barista Parlor, Amelia’s Bread, Taqueria de Julieta), fitness facilities (Myriad Health and Fitness), an event venue (VisionLoft), retail (Grounded Plant and Floral Co.), a nonprofit (Pattern), and coworking office space (Industrious). “A highly curated collection of the best Indianapolis has to offer, creating a walkable amenity package for office tenants that is unmatched in the market,” according to SomeraRoad’s quarterly investor update.

It’s not hard to see what caught the eye of Basel Bataineh, one of SomeraRoad’s partners. He was driving around downtown Indianapolis when he noticed the Stutz Building and, “as a real estate investor, I thought it was beautiful. I thought the architecture was unique. I thought the alleyways running through the buildings were really cool. The old historic character was largely intact, and I wanted to learn more.” When he and his partners found out more, they envisioned something like Ponce City Market in Atlanta, a former Sears, Roebuck & Co. store and warehouse that now houses shops, restaurants, apartments, and an amusement park on the roof. Or Industry City in Brooklyn, a repurposed industrial space that now calls itself “a one-stop destination of experiences, eateries, events, and everything in between.”

Woodard had been approached many times about selling the Stutz, but had always resisted. “The history was important, and that included the artist community,” he says. “Other developers didn’t quite understand or appreciate those thoughts, but SomeraRoad impressed me. They seemed sincere.” Though SomeraRoad didn’t give him a written guarantee that it would accommodate the artists working there, Woodard says he expects them to be embraced.

Bataineh says the number of artist studios in the new Stutz will depend on demand. “We create space, and people who want to lease that space are welcome to lease it,” he says. But he won’t commit to a particular price just yet. “They will be commensurate with the capital being invested in the space. We’ve agreed to set aside some spaces that are more raw—not unlike the artist studios that the Stutz has housed in the past—and those spaces will generally lease for cheaper than if a marketing company asks us to fit out their offices.” At the very least, there will be public art and art shows, like BUTTER, a multiday fine-art fair held at the Stutz last September that showcased the works of Black visual artists from across the country.

Artist Phil Campbell has seen this kind of transformation before. He was in Broad Ripple in the late 1980s when Broad Ripple Avenue switched from art galleries to bars; on Mass Ave in the ’90s when that street went from art galleries to restaurants; in the Faris Building just south of downtown when it was sold to Lilly; in the Murphy Building, which he owned until the housing market boomed, his lender called the loan, and he lost the building. He’s been in the Stutz since 2013, and hopes to have two more years there. But he’s skeptical about SomeraRoad’s intentions.

“If you want high-quality artists who don’t have a wealthy spouse paying for their studio,” he says, “you have to keep the rents affordable.”

Monty Matuka, founder and creative director of the clothing company MELI, moved into the Stutz in July 2020. By September 2021, he was asked to leave to make way for a new elevator shaft. “With me being a minority business and the only fashion business in the building, I would have thought they would have wanted to keep me for diversity and bring in more of my audience into the building,” he says. MELI is now located in the Murphy Building, a “super-warm, super-welcoming” space.

Constance Scopelitis moved into the Stutz in 1993, a space on the third floor with a wooden floor (which is good for standing for a long time), a southern window exposure (which she loves for the light), and the visibility of working around other artists in one location. She’s credited with starting the open houses, which ran for 28 years. “When the new owners came in and bought the property, I thought, They’ve got an awesome, modern, contemporary plan,” she says. “But as an artist, I need to take control of where I’m going to continue to work.” She’s leaving to build a 1,200-square-foot studio at her house in Rocky Ripple.

Photographer Faith Blackwell—at 10 years, a relative newcomer to the Stutz—hopes to stay. “It’s a true community of artists,” she says. “I can walk around the building, pop my head into anybody’s studio, and we can toss ideas off one another. I’m trying to be optimistic about everything, because from the renderings, it looks like a beautiful space.”

Stuart Alter, the president of the Stutz Artists Association, is measured when he talks about the future. He’s upset with SomeraRoad—“They have dismantled a thriving, vibrant arts community”—but also realistic. “If you take three art studios, knock down the walls, and make it an office, all of a sudden you’re making 10 times the rent. I understand that. That’s their prerogative,” he says. “But I think they missed the boat in not leveraging the Stutz artist community. They should have more strategically integrated that into their plan.”

Woodard, who also has a studio in the Stutz, plans to stay. He says the artists’ concerns are justifiable, “but I think it will be just fine a couple of years from now.”

Perhaps no one exemplifies the importance of the Stutz to the local arts community better than Greg Hull. The dean of the Herron School of Art & Design was also the first artist-in-residence at the Stutz in 1996, which gave him free studio space for a year and helped establish him in Indianapolis after moving here from Dallas. He stayed at the Stutz for three years because space was affordable, then found an industrial space east of downtown before building a studio at his home. Hull sees the Stutz as a microcosm of the city, and he hopes SomeraRoad will, too.

“I want the new owners to understand that the arts are one of the most effective barometers for the health of any ecosystem, and the economic impact of the arts on every community, we’re finally recognizing, is huge,” he says. “This is a quality-of-life issue.” 

The post Inside The Stutz Controversy appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Photo by Tony Valainis

What was the first thing you wanted to focus on when you took over last May?

Making sure we honored all of our commitments that were already in process—including, of course, revamping the Dinosphere. I was its original project manager when it opened in 2004, so that’s one of the things I was very focused on. I wanted to make sure we were on track to open the new space in 2022.

How is it changing?

We knew the Cretaceous creatures we displayed were very popular, but we also wanted to feature the Jurassic. So we did it the hard way. We actually leased land out west so we could be part of the process of uncovering the animals and getting them out of the ground. When you enter the new Dinosphere, you’re going to come face to face with the giants of the Jurassic. We’re adding two huge, long-neck specimens.

What species are the new additions?

We’re still doing some diagnostic work, working with a group of international paleontologists. One of them is a diplodocus. As for the other, we’re still studying it, trying to determine exactly what it is.

From the outside, the museum doesn’t appear to have gotten any bigger. Where will you put them?

The beauty of the existing space is that we have very high ceilings and a very large entry ramp. We’re maximizing that space by hanging things and bringing a whole new steel platform that looks like Jurassic rock and mud. We were able to reengineer the area and use what we already had without creating a new, larger footprint.

Are you hanging the actual bones of the new long-neck dinosaurs or just fiberglass castings?

We’re mounting the actual bones. We have strong steel armatures that are custom built and anchored to the floor. In paleontology, there are always some bones you just can’t find, so those have been replaced using either a cast piece from another specimen or a 3-D–printed piece made of plastic. But these skeletons are still very, very heavy, because they’re mostly built from fossilized bones, which are made of stone.

What was it like running a children’s museum in the midst of a pandemic? Kids are kind of germy under the best of circumstances, after all.

Our staff jumped into action, researching what other museums and even theme parks were doing. We ultimately closed for a period of time, but we spent that time working on ways to safely reopen and still offer the interactivity everybody loves. We came up with a strong cleaning regimen and made exhibits out of materials that could be easily wiped down. It also helped museums come together as a field. We’re normally pretty competitive, but we learned to share tips during the pandemic.

You’ve worked at the museum for three decades. How has it changed during that time?

I think we’ve gone a long way toward creating more immersive and themed environments. Dinosphere was kind of a turning point, and then we did our Power of Children exhibit where we wanted you to walk in the footsteps of kids such as Anne Frank and Ryan White. We started out collecting lots of different things, but we’ve become much more purposeful. Now we collect objects that help support a narrative. For instance, we have a traveling Barbie exhibit, and we’ve expanded our Barbie collection
to support that.

Do you think you’ll create more traveling shows, like Barbie?

We’ve actually done touring exhibits for 30 years. However, the scale has changed, as well as the number we have on the road. We’ve worked with partners like Mattel to do the Barbie exhibit, and Warner Brothers to do our DC Comics exhibit. This summer, we’re doing another Warner Brothers property, Scooby-Doo. These give us a national and international presence, because we tour them across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. But they also support what we do here at home. We’re building recognition as a premier provider of family learning.

What’s the coolest off-exhibit item you have sitting in the children’s museum’s extensive storage area right now?

I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan, and he was my inspiration to study archaeology and work in this museum. We’re very fortunate to have some items on loan from Lucasfilm, including a replica of the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I’m kind of in awe when I see that.

Do you see the museum growing physically larger in the coming years?

We’re still assessing those sorts of plans. Right now, we’re focused on maximizing the building we already have, and being good neighbors to our surrounding community.

When was the last time you rode the carousel?

Before the pandemic. I rode one of the jumpers—the horses that actually go up and down. 

The post Q&A: Children’s Museum CEO Jennifer Pace Robinson appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Photo courtesy Robin Staten

How did you decide on Haughville to build your hotel?

I had been searching for a property for over a year. It was really important to me that I would be 100 percent owner of not only the land, but also the brand of Tiny Urban Escapes. I came across a property on the near west side, and just by happenstance, it had recently become available. I had to pitch the concept to the Westside Community Development Corporation, which owned the land—how the use of the property would have economic benefits to the community and how the brand would impact the residents of the near west side. I’m thankful for that because it forced me to dive deeper into the community. I grew up on the west side, so I was familiar with the area, but not with its current residents, resources, and needs.

An all-female design team from Chicago, Siren Betty Design, designed the glass-walled rooms. What about that team made you want to work with them?

Prior to the groundbreaking, Tiny Urban Escapes had been featured in The New York Times and Architectural Digest for its innovative concept. So the idea was out there. I came across Siren Betty three or four years ago, and they were a group of amazing, dynamic women who drove down from Chicago to meet. I’m intentional about partnering not only with women, but with women of color. And I loved the work that they do. Their energy matched mine. They were immediately inspired by the shipping container idea.

A few years ago, you were working at IUPUI. How did you figure out that your purpose in life was to create this hotel?

I may not be the most religious person, but I am very spiritual. I think that individuals can have a calling that we either choose to ignore or don’t have the confidence to pursue. Sometimes, life pulls us in different directions. But I will say that I was inspired by my office at IUPUI, which had mostly glass walls and was in the heart of campus. There was something tugging at me, this fire in my gut. My family has a natural affinity for hospitality because they’re from the South. I came up in that environment and had a true love for hospitality very early on. I just had no idea initially that it would be as a hotelier. Less than 1 percent of hoteliers in the industry are female, and even less than that are African-American women. I decided to chart a more challenging course. I don’t think I would have spent the amount of time that I have on this if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe not only in myself, but in Tiny Urban Escapes’ vision and its benefit to the community.

How do you plan to overcome the challenges of being located in a struggling neighborhood like Haughville?

I built my first container on my grandmother’s property, just five minutes from where Tiny Urban Escapes will be located. When I completed the build for The Blossom suite, I did a sip and see without any media or city officials. I invited the community for their opinion, which sometimes can be blunt and brutal. But the reception was very positive. There’s such rich history in Haughville. So how do we bring people back into this space? How do we get our community members to fall back in love with it? I could have picked any location for this hotel, but in my opinion, I could not have chosen a more vibrant location than where we are on Michigan Street.

The suites are named The Blossom, The Bold, The Lux, and The Naturalist. How did you come up with those themed rooms for your hotel?

In most of the hotels you go to, the rooms are the same unless you’re doing a premium upgrade. Working with Siren Betty Design, we wanted to be a little bit more strategic and thoughtful in our approach. We thought of individuals like a naturalist who would appreciate things that had a more natural feel and undertone to them. We thought of individuals who are bold, or more zen and relaxed. The Ira Jean, or The Blossom suite, is named after my grandmother. I wanted to pay homage to her and her legacy because her home was such a warm and inviting place.

What challenges have you faced being new to this industry?

The hospitality industry is no different than many other industries. Females—especially females of color—face additional challenges. There’s a lack of access to resources. In the African-American community, we have been longstanding contributors to economic development as entrepreneurs, but that information has not always been shared with others. I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by some goodhearted people who openly shared information that guided a lot of my decisions.

Who is mentoring you through this?

I like to chart my own course, but there have definitely been some key players who I’ve been able to lean on. Aaron Laramore, from LISC Indianapolis, was our funding source for the project. The Indy Black Chamber of Commerce has been an amazing resource. And I leaned heavily on my family as well. When I came home and said, ‘I think this is what I want to do,’ my husband didn’t pack up and leave, so that was a good sign.

What surprises have come up so far?

There are multiple layers to being a developer and a hotelier, and the construction world is something I’m still learning. Most of us walk past buildings and don’t think about how they got there. Working with contractors has definitely been a learning curve, but it’s one that I embrace. While I was doing research on the conversion of containers, I went to one of the Marriott hotels in downtown Indianapolis. I shadowed their general contractor, and I ended up with the assistant controller position, so I did a year in a 374-bed hotel that had two restaurants and a Starbucks. That “baptism by fire” experience was very beneficial.

You describe your business as “female developed.” Are all the members of your staff women?

They are right now. It’s a male-dominated industry, but I’ve been very intentional about women’s empowerment. Hopefully, I can provide an opportunity for women who want to become hoteliers that didn’t exist for me when I decided to enter into this arena.

What kind of customers do you expect to attract when the hotel opens this summer?

People who have a love for wellness. But when I talk about wellness, I mean collective wellness, not just our physical selves. We’re designing these rooms so that people can find true serenity and a place to thrive versus just a place to stay overnight. I also see the adventure traveler, so those individuals who want to try something completely new, innovative, and move away from the traditional hospitality experience that most of us have become bored with. Definitely the locals, because we focus heavily on the staycation experience and day retreats. Then those individuals who are taking charge of their life and saying, ‘I’m overwhelmed and I need a break.’ We created Tiny Urban Escapes as a place you can come to prepare yourself to thrive in the world.

The post Q&A With Hotelier Robin Staten appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Photos courtesy Indianapolis Colts

IN THE PANTHENON of, let’s say… quirky NFL owners, the Colts’ Jim Irsay somehow manages to stand out. It’s not just his Twitter account, loaded with cryptic aphorisms and videos of the 62-year-old delivering motivational speeches from his weight room. Nor is it limited to his unusually public-facing sense of humor, having appeared in two episodes of Parks and Recreation. As idiosyncratic as Jerry Jones or Dan Snyder might be, neither of them spent the fall touring the United States with Jack Kerouac’s original On the Road manuscript in tow, serenading his guests with covers of Rolling Stones hits along the way.

For years, Irsay has been almost as well known for his vast collection of pop culture memorabilia as his second-generation stewardship of the Colts. This past fall, he took that assemblage on the road for the first time, with a nine-city, two-continent touring exhibition that featured not just historic guitars once owned by legends such as Prince and Bob Dylan, but performances from Irsay’s own band, where he moonlights as a frontman belting out hits from the classic rock songbook.

As much of a spectacle as the cover sets might be—with Irsay backed by members of John Mellencamp’s band and R.E.M., among others—they’re simply a warmup act for the main attraction, Irsay’s massive and still-growing collection. There are the shoes Muhammad Ali wore for “The Thrilla in Manila.” There’s the drum set Ringo Starr played during The Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. For the traditionalists, there are letters signed by Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. Items from the collection, according to a press release, have been featured at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Indiana State Museum, as well as in Paris, London, and Rome. Overall, it features more than 400 artifacts and is worth more than $100 million.

Irsay’s traveling show was meant as a prelude to a permanent, public museum for his treasures, in a city still to be named. It was also a promotional tool: The circumstances recall one of the most tried-and-true traditions of the sporting world, when NFL owners shop around their franchises to a parade of cities eager to woo them and their revenue. Case in point: the Colts themselves, whose Lucas Oil Stadium is built on one of the most massive public subsidies in the league, to the tune of $620 million. Irsay might be the fun-loving rock enthusiast in front of the cameras, but behind the scenes in the boardroom, he’s as bottom line–minded as the next suit. As recently as 2018, Colts Chief Operating Officer Pete Ward refused to close the door on a potential relocation in the next decade if certain conditions weren’t met.

As such, it’s almost impossible not to compare the current shopping-around of Irsay’s acquisitions to such a situation—especially as the owner has publicly stated he’s looking for a similar “public-private partnership” in establishing a home for his items. Cities on the tour included Nashville, Washington, D.C., Austin, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and, yes, right here in Indianapolis. But a pop culture museum, as impressive as this one might be, is a far cry from an NFL franchise when it comes to its money-generating potential.

“The economic impact is larger with sports stadiums, but the arts are such a part of our culture and the fabric of our society,” says Brenda Lee Johnston, associate professor and chair of the arts administration department at Butler University. “The incentives just aren’t the same, but they are there.”

Ward, who has worked closely with Irsay on the project, describes the future home as “a community that is open, welcoming, and progressive,” with “a vibrant and innovative arts and cultural scene” and “a great visitors and tourism infrastructure.” As well as, of course, “a strong history of public-private partnerships.” All of which, especially that crucial last factor, could reasonably describe Indianapolis, which Ward says would be “ideal” as the collection’s home base.

“If it’s Indianapolis, that would make sense given his family’s history here and the connections,” Johnston says. “I understand why it makes sense financially for him to look at other cities, but I’d think you would want something like that close to home.”

The best comparison one could plausibly make to what the Irsay camp has in mind for their collection is something like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, established by Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun in the early 1980s and home to thousands of relics from rock’s history. The “Rock Hall,” as it’s known colloquially, earned $36 million in total revenue in 2019, according to public filings, and serves as a national mecca for music fans despite its relatively out-of-the-way location in Cleveland. (Part of the city’s pitch for the hall was, you guessed it: an offer of $65 million in public subsidies for its construction.)

So, could a similar gambit work in bringing Irsay’s assortment to his adopted hometown, despite its relative lack of rock heritage compared to cities like Nashville, Los Angeles, or even Austin, which has a parade of music fans each year by virtue of the South by Southwest festival? In October, Chris Gahl, a senior vice president at Visit Indy, told The Chicago Sun-Times that the group was investigating how a public display might draw visitors to the city. He was circumspect, saying they would “look for ways to continue to diversify and grow our tourism ecosystem to attract more visitors and keep them here longer, spending more.” But to estimate Indianapolis’s chances, all one has to do is look at the massive perks Irsay’s Colts have already extracted from the city in order to keep it their home.

Irsay’s team says all options are on the table. One can’t necessarily compare his collection to a sports franchise from a financial standpoint, given the obscene amounts of revenue generated by the latter. But there’s one very un-rock-and-roll thing the comparison does reveal, as this small-scale, cover version of a franchise relocation plays out: You don’t get the opportunity to buy Jack Kerouac’s manuscripts, or build a $720 million football stadium, or trek back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean with Elton John’s piano in tow by leaving money on the table. 

The post Jim Irsay Is On The Road Again appeared first on Indianapolis Monthly.

Photo by Tony Valainis

I imagine the usually staid work of economic development has been more intense lately. What’s your typical workday like?

Most of my day involves working with companies looking to relocate to Indy. If the business is a good fit, I can connect them to resources, real estate, and incentives like tax abatements. We thought this might be a slow year for that, but it’s just booming. It’s like COVID-19 caused a clog in the pipeline, and now it has been cleared.

Why did you decide to get involved in this sort of work?

Both of my parents have been involved in community development and the arts here for a long time. They inspired me to be an active participant in the community. And I realized that the opportunities at Indy Chamber were a perfect fit for my interests, which were a little different.

What are some things that you were doing last year, during the peak of the pandemic, that you’re doing differently now?

Last year, I think we were in a direct response mode, coping with a crisis where we had to act very quickly. We organized a business loan fund through the Paycheck Protection Program, but we lacked the technology to handle what became an avalanche of interest. We had to develop an automated system and train more than 40 employees to use it. We had to do the best that we could with the resources we had at the time, not knowing what things were going to look like in three months. But now I think we’re shifting to a place where our responses are more strategic. There’s more planning. We’re still trying to figure out what things will look like in a year, but I think we have a more solid idea than we did this time last year.

What lessons did you and the Chamber learn from the pandemic?

We realized what we can accomplish when we push a lot of things aside and really focus on our main priorities. As a nonprofit, you can be spread very thin if you say yes to everything. I think we’re learning how to say yes to the things that are most strategic for us. We’re now focusing on a few programs that give the most benefit to the community.

Did your mom, Harrison Center executive director Joanna Taft, offer any advice in the midst of all this?

There were many, many late nights, and she told me to keep my head down, keep doing good work, and make sure I was being collaborative and asking for help when I needed it.

How big of an adjustment was working at home?

I live with three roommates, and all of them were working downstairs at the kitchen table. But I was so stressed that I didn’t have the capacity to be distracted by other people working. So I set up a table in my bedroom and spent most days working from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. I kept several sticky notes on my desk with different lists of things that needed to be done. I did one thing at a time and tried to put out fires as they came up.

What’s the latest call you ever got?

I had people calling me at 3 a.m. I didn’t answer the ones that were that late because I didn’t want to encourage it. But I do know that my phone was ringing late in the night.

So you were getting nonstop calls from business owners asking for advice on everything from loans to how to balance their books?

Yes. My phone rang off the hook for a year. But we were all just trying to help each other through that extraordinary moment. I think one thing we weren’t prepared for was that a lot of businesses had never applied for a grant or a loan before. Their accounting systems weren’t set up to be shareable with others, or their business documents weren’t very organized. Once, we got a profit and loss statement written on a sticky note. That’s how the majority of microbusinesses operate, because they never needed to operate beyond that. So I would be struggling with technology issues on the phone with someone who has never used a computer before. They might fill out documents and send them to me over their phone because they didn’t have a laptop.

You own a house downtown, right next to a house your brother owns. How did that happen?

My brother, Michael, and I both have a love for old homes and the downtown urban core, and it happened that there were two houses available next door to each other that were owned by the same seller. So we got a good deal by purchasing them at the same time.

Why all the roommates?

A lot of people ask me that, and sometimes I ask myself that as well. But we have a lot of fun. My brother and I wanted to create a space where people could come hang out on the porch just about any time. A lot of people don’t have a sense of community because they don’t have a place to hang out without feeling like a burden.

For years, you didn’t own a car. Why did you break down and buy one?

I caved when the pandemic hit. I thought, If I’m going to survive this, I’m going to need some wheels to get around. It was also due to Blue Indy shutting down. I had leaned on that a lot for some of my longer treks. So I got a Honda Fit. My coworkers make fun of me because it’s the most non-car car there is. It looks like something that should be on a golf course. 

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