CityWay Phase Two Breaking Ground: the Pros and the Cons
Posted by Eric McAfee in New Development on Dec 31st, 2017 | 17 comments
Earlier this year (it’s still 2017!), Buckingham Companies broke ground on the next phase of CityWay, an expansive development south of the train trestle on land formerly belonging to Eli Lilly and Company.
The first phase (completed in 2012) features over 250 apartments, parking garages fully hidden from the primary streets, the Alexander Hotel, over 40,000 square feet for retail, and a partnership with the YMCA for a voluminous fitness center across from the Alexander—all on the south side of the tracks, primarily fronting Delaware and South streets.
This next phase has morphed...
The Broad Ripple Parking Garage satisfied a need (so they say). But how well does it work?
Posted by Eric McAfee in New Development on May 29th, 2017 | 29 comments
Considering the wonderful coverage Curt here at Urban Indy provided in the months leading up to and during the construction of the Broad Ripple Parking Garage, it’s surprising that nobody wrote a feature once it opened. But it looks like we didn’t.  So here’s a chance, now that the garage has just celebrated its fourth birthday.
People in the local blogosphere routinely rant and rave about how many development projects have depended upon taxpayer subsidies to get off the ground—either in the form of liberal application of Tax Increment Financing,...
New Proposal for Long-Delayed Hotel near Banker’s Life Fieldhouse
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Neighborhoods, New Development on Jan 3rd, 2017 | 21 comments
There’s been a hotel proposed for this property for at least a decade. Seriously. It popped back up again 2 years ago. Still, nothing has been built on this valuable surface lot at the corner of Georgia and Pennsylvania Streets. However, it’s a significant enough of a proposal that the latest iteration deserved a post all its own. The Indy Historic Preservation Committee has posted the renderings and site plan, which can be seen below:
I’m happy that most of the garage will not front the main streets, and that it will at least include street-level retail. Kinda sad that they...
PODCAST: What are we going to do about all these dead malls?
Posted by Eric McAfee in Neighborhoods on Jan 28th, 2016 | 22 comments
This latest post–a podcast actually–is already over a week old, which would make it pretty stale by blogosphere terms, except that it’s particularly relevant for Urban Indy, in the wake of all the closures at the Circle Centre Mall (the most recent of which seems to be Abercrombie and Fitch, though I wouldn’t hold my breath for yet another closure before February).
At any rate, this latest podcast has Aaron Renn of The Urbanophile interviewing me about my experience with this formerly ironclad retail typology. Â No new malls have been built in a decade, and virtually all...
City Market (Again): Maximizing the Tenant Potential.
Posted by Eric McAfee in Historical Posts on Dec 21st, 2015 | 34 comments
I first featured the plight of the City Market on my personal blog, American Dirt, back in 2009, when it was in dire straits, just as it had been for many years. Decades, even. It was a pretty grim place: most of the perimeter simply offered unnecessary seating, the central vendor stalls were only-half full, and the ambiance of the market was cavernous and sterile, even during the peak lunch hour. I specifically interviewed local businesses for their opinions on City Market—successful operations like Moody’s Meats and Goose the Market—but neither one had much positive to say: the...
