Jockamo pizzeria nearing Fort Harrison opening

The owners of popular Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza hope to open a pie place at the Village of Fort Harrison within the next two months.

Irvington neighbors Bob Stark and Mick McGrath launched Jockamo in the east-side neighborhood in 2007 and followed up with a Greenwood location three years later.

The pizzeria's long-awaited arrival in the rejuvenated Fort Benjamin Harrison area should come in mid-April, co-owner Bob Stark said. Work on the 5,400-square-foot space should start within the week.

Jockamo is moving into a $5.5 million, 36,000-square-foot office/retail building at the northwest corner of 56th Street and Lawrence Village Parkway, just east of Post Road. It will house 25,000 square feet of office suites; the balance will be retail.

The building is set to open simultaneously with Jockamo, said Scott Baldwin of developer Fort Harrison Office Suites LLC. He co-owns the developing entity with Yeager Properties Inc.

Jockamo will be a couople blocks south of Triton Brewing Co., which opened in the Fort area at 5764 Wheeler Road in September 2011.

Baldwin is in discussions with two restaurants in hopes one of them will fill the remaining 5,400 square feet of retail space at the east end of the two-story building, he said.

Office suites are in the 200-square-foot range. Baldwin said he’s pre-leased about 20 of the 100 available.

Stark and McGrath were drawn to the area after the Fort Harrison Reuse Authority approached them about opening in the village.

“We get asked all the time from cities and towns,” Stark said. “But we really liked the Fort. Being that it’s a historic area, that really attracted us.”

The opening of the third Jockamo comes on the heels of Giordano’s arrival in Indianapolis late last month, at the River Crossing shopping center near Keystone at the Crossing.

Stark said he gets asked all the time from patrons wondering why Jockamo doesn’t offer a Chicago-style pizza.

“We’re not Chicago,” he said. “Us, Bazbeaux and Some Guys are very similar. We call it Indianapolis pizza.”

Stark said he and McGrath have no plans to open another restaurant anytime soon.