Indianapolis Development News

[Unionstation13]

Originally Posted by UrbanTom

I believe the name of the historical midrise near the Children's Museum is the Commodore. Also - there is a nice greenhouse at the IMA, located just east of the Lilly Mansion. Another nice historical plant conservatory / greenhouse is in Garfield Park. Both the IMA and Garfield greenhouses have plenty of tropical flowers with plenty of orchids and other bromeliads.

Those are great green houses but I was thinking of something far larger. Something like the size of the statehouse completely dedicated to the housing of exotic plants.

[Unionstation13]

Indianapolis isn't booming with population but its growth is pretty healthy. Its growing modestly which will over time add up to a much larger metro(Especially with counties nearby flourishing).

[indyfiend]

Residents of the Babe Denny neighborhood south of downtown are celebrating after the Metropolitan Development Commission denied a zoning variance request for Indianapolis Welding Supply, one of the city’s most frequently cited code violators. The company had hoped to rezone several plots and vacate some alleys so it could continue to store gas cylinders and semi-trailers on plots spread out over the neighborhood. Code enforcement officers have cited IWS more than 60 times in recent years. The company, which also is facing a lawsuit in environmental court over the violations, is considering an appeal of the zoning decision, said J. Murray Clark, an attorney for the owner.

[Unionstation13]

I hope that company is pushed out of city limits. I'd like to see what is left of Babe Denny properly restored(if intact) and reused and turned into once again an urban neighborhood. Congrats to the residents of Babe Denny.

[arenn]

I saw an article in the Journal today about vacant homes. Apparently Indianapolis is #10 in the nation for percentage of vacant homes at 4.3%. Though the article did note that Indy has long maintained an above average vacancy rate. They used this article to push their Rust Belt in decline thesis, though didn't talk at all about, for example, Atlanta, which had an even higher vacancy rate.

Part of this depends on where the vacant homes are. We know a lot of inner city homes are vacant. This is a known problem. The real question is how much suburban vacancy is there? With good population growth, Indy could probably grow out of a problem there fairly quickly, as long as the problem isn't big enough to lead to the type of blight problems Charlotte is facing.

[hoosier]

This project goes all the way to 96th Street, which is partly in Indianapolis, so I thought it would be OK to post this article here. Also, traffic on I-69 greatly effects NE Indy. I posted this article in The Indy Suburban Development News thread as well.


INDOT to speed up I-69 widening

By John Tuohy
john.tuohy@indystar.com

The Indiana Department of Transportation has agreed to drastically speed up the construction of extra lanes on Interstate 69 in Hamilton County.

The agency plans to add at least one travel lane in each direction of the highway by the fall of 2009 and make other improvements near the 116th Street exit.

“These are very much needed improvements and will be a tremendous benefit to us as we continue to grow,” said Fishers Town Manager Gary Huff. INDOT officials met with Fishers officials on Thursday to confirm the accelerated schedule, Huff said.

“We are extremely happy with this development,” Huff said.

INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield said $9.5 million has been dedicated to add a lane in each direction from 96th Street to 116th Street and the other improvements.

They include adding southbound lane on the 116th Street exit ramp and another lane on the southbound entrance ramp at 116th. INDOT may also dedicate one lane to high occupancy vehicle and buses.

Fishers and Hamilton County officials recently expressed frustration when INDOT informed them that large scale work on I-69 would not begin until 2016 at the earliest, and possibly not until 2020. Huff said the town has been in talks with INDOT for several months to try to speed up parts of the project.

The long-term INDOT plan calls for widening I-69 between 96th and 116th streets from six to 10 lanes, and increasing the stretch from 116th Street to Ind. 238 from four to six lanes. Interchanges along the route also would be rebuilt.

County Commissioner Steve Dillinger said he has been negotiating with INDOT for weeks to try to get the entire project moved up. The agency said that was impossible but they could take some interim steps to relive the congested highway.

“They made some concessions, which is very good,” Dillinger said. ‘But they didn’t agree to move up the design work for the big project. I am very satisfied that we have a good dialogue going with the state, though.”

[arenn]

hoosier, this sounds like little more than what INDOT already had on the books. They had already announced auxiliary lanes to be constructed in 2009. The only new thing here is the potential HOV lanes.

[hoosier]

Originally Posted by arenn

hoosier, this sounds like little more than what INDOT already had on the books. They had already announced auxiliary lanes to be constructed in 2009. The only new thing here is the potential HOV lanes.

Well, according to the title and first sentence of the article, this is a newsworthy event. Yes, it is patchwork essentially, but better than nothing.

[billionbucks]

I-69 is forever being worked on. I guess it is good news - just makes me look forward to more delays on my way from BSU to Indy.

[Unionstation13]

Highways are just going to get wider and wider until you have 20 lane highways. That is why I find the use of autos so unhealthy(as well as other reasons).

[indyfiend]

Here's a video of the new airport terminal from indystar.com. Can't wait for this to open.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...eoID=689695423

[indyfiend]

From indystar.com:

INDIANAPOLIS » Simon Property Group is proposing to build Boston's tallest residential building, a 47-floor tower that would go above an expanded Neiman Marcus store. Designed by Howard Elkus of Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston, the tower would complete Copley Place, an urban shopping gallery built in the 1980s over the Massachusetts Turnpike roadway and ramps, and on a former railroad yard, the Globe reported. The Residences at Copley Place is the tentative name. Indianapolis-based Simon, known as a mall specialist, employs more than 5,000 workers worldwide and is the largest public real estate company in the U.S. (Star report)

If Simon is in the business of building highrise residential towers, why don't they show some love to their hometown and help get the MSA project off the ground?

[IndyYeah]

Originally Posted by indyfiend

From indystar.com:

INDIANAPOLIS » Simon Property Group is proposing to build Boston's tallest residential building, a 47-floor tower that would go above an expanded Neiman Marcus store. Designed by Howard Elkus of Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston, the tower would complete Copley Place, an urban shopping gallery built in the 1980s over the Massachusetts Turnpike roadway and ramps, and on a former railroad yard, the Globe reported. The Residences at Copley Place is the tentative name. Indianapolis-based Simon, known as a mall specialist, employs more than 5,000 workers worldwide and is the largest public real estate company in the U.S. (Star report)

If Simon is in the business of building highrise residential towers, why don't they show some love to their hometown and help get the MSA project off the ground?

I wonder what it looks like? Maybe the architecture will be better than their vision for Indy's headquarters.

[hoosier]

Originally Posted by indyfiend

From indystar.com:

INDIANAPOLIS » Simon Property Group is proposing to build Boston's tallest residential building, a 47-floor tower that would go above an expanded Neiman Marcus store. Designed by Howard Elkus of Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston, the tower would complete Copley Place, an urban shopping gallery built in the 1980s over the Massachusetts Turnpike roadway and ramps, and on a former railroad yard, the Globe reported. The Residences at Copley Place is the tentative name. Indianapolis-based Simon, known as a mall specialist, employs more than 5,000 workers worldwide and is the largest public real estate company in the U.S. (Star report)

If Simon is in the business of building highrise residential towers, why don't they show some love to their hometown and help get the MSA project off the ground?

That's fucking bullshit!! Build locally douchebags!! The demand is here!!

[shane453]

Dang, I hope that when I'm 23 I can do a multimillion dollar upscale historic residential renovation. :o

That's a really, really great building and a wonderful refurb project.

[billionbucks]

The demand isn't anywhere. *insert recession and diving housing market*

[hoosier]

Originally Posted by billionbucks

The demand isn't anywhere. *insert recession and diving housing market*

What was Merrill Tower then?

[Unionstation13]

Originally Posted by shane453

Dang, I hope that when I'm 23 I can do a multimillion dollar upscale historic residential renovation. :o

That's a really, really great building and a wonderful refurb project.

I'm hoping more projects pop up like this because buildings like that are not uncommon in the central city area but sadly many of them arent in good condition. Our stock of turn of the century apartments is not massive compared to other cities but it makes up a large percent of the city's older(if I dare say historic) structures.

[Unionstation13]

Originally Posted by billionbucks

The demand isn't anywhere. *insert recession and diving housing market*

there is a high demand for apartments downtown. The recession has stunted it but at the same time I think people are starting to look at gas prices, etc and wanting to live in areas where use of auto is not needed so much.

[thehoss257]

A random thought...

I've noticed an increasing number of news stories that are questioning the existence of global warming. As we often use global warming as one of the main reasons to encourage transit and urban development patterns, this make me worry a bit... I think we need to be carful not to put all our eggs in the environmental basket. Supporters of urbanism need to be ahead of the curve if it looks like the prevailing wisdom changes on this issue.

I'm not saying I don't believe in global warming... I just think we need to be careful. Besides, even if it turns out that global warming is not taking place it still makes sense to limit the amount of foreign matter we spew into the atmosphere.

Just a thought.