INDIANAPOLIS — Three housing developments are scheduled to begin this year in Marion County. They will replace old, vacant buildings in Broad Ripple, Fountain Square and the near east side.
The projects are expected to bring more than 630 new apartments for rent across the city.
Guilford Midtown Project: 6220 Guilford Avenue
In Broad Ripple, a developer plans to tear down the old Kroger grocery store and build a mixed-use development.
The store has been vacant since 2020 and sits right off Broad Ripple Avenue. It’s also not far from IndyGo’s Red line.
The proposal includes 232 apartment units and 3,820 square feet of retail and commercial space.
LINK: 921 Virginia Avenue
In the heart of Fountain Square, developers are working to build a mixed-use building. It will replace the former White Castle distribution center off Virginia Avenue.
The development is called LINK and it sits right on the cultural trial. The redevelopment will create 204 apartment units and 14,000 square feet of retail. The city hopes this will be used for small businesses.
“The White Castle distribution center has been in the neighborhood for a long time and has been closed for a long time. We all pretty eager to see something go in,” said Dakota Pawlicki with the Fountain Square Neighborhood Association.
Pawlicki said he hopes the prime spot will also meet the area’s needs.
“As more and more developers are coming to Fountain Square as a place to build housing, we want to make sure that there is affordable housing for our residents and others around the city,” he said.
Bakery Living: 1331 E. Washington Street
The current proposal plans to replace the former Ivy Tech building off East Washington Street on the near east side.
Developers want to create 200 apartment units for housing and activate 3,200 square feet of new retail and commercial space along IndyGo’s proposed Blue Line.
Response to development plans
The Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development said these three sites are all near a current or future transit line, which is something the city has been pushing for.
Back in 2021, the City-County Council and the Metropolitan Development Commission approved zoning changes that encourage density along transit lines.
“These three projects are exemplary of what we are seeing throughout the city which is an increase in affordable and market-rate housing along our Bus Rapid Transit lines,” said Scarlett Andrews, the deputy mayor of economic development for the city. “I think we have seen the success of that with over 3,000 units of housing in the pipeline right now along these three bus rapid transit lines.”
On Monday, the council also approved $23 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incentives for the three projects.
With that, developers had two choices. Either they could offer affordable housing units or pay a fee to the city’s Housing Trust Fund.
In this case, that fee was $750,000 to one million dollars. Both ‘Midtown Guildford’ and the ‘LINK’ projects chose that option.
“They will promote the development of other affordable housing throughout the city and potentially even in the same neighborhood,” Andrews said.
The Bakery Living development will offer affordable units.
