IBJNews

  • Home

City-County Council approves north-side TIF district

Kathleen McLaughlin
January 29, 2013
Keywords
City-County Council, Commercial Real Estate, Development/Redevelopment, Government, Government & Economic Development, Local Government, Real Estate & Retail, Taxes
Back to TopCommentsE-mailPrint

A new redevelopment area will be created on the north side, as the Indianapolis City-County Council voted 23-5 Monday night in favor of the North Midtown tax-increment finance district.

The new TIF district stretches from Fall Creek to the White River along College Avenue, encompassing 748 acres of land with an assessed value of $361.7 million.

While some council Democrats have questioned the need for new TIF districts, which capture the growth in property-tax revenue for redevelopment projects, at-large Councilor John Barth argued that North Midtown is different because it will be driven by the needs of neighborhoods, rather than developers. Specific redevelopment projects will be identified by a Midtown Economic Council, which will include representatives from each neighborhood in the TIF district.

Financing for those yet-identified projects will come from the property taxes on Keystone Construction Corp.'s parking garage and retail space in Broad Ripple, which is included in the district. Keystone's project was financed in part with $6.5 million in parking-meter revenue.

The boundaries of the new TIF area include seven neighborhoods along the College Avenue-Monon Trail corridor: Broad Ripple, Butler-Tarkington, Chatard-Forest Hills, Crown Hill, the Indiana State Fairgrounds, Mapleton-Fall Creek and Meridian Kessler.

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Yes, 38th Street
    ChrisJanuary 30, 2013 7:42 PM
    Idyllic, the targeted commercial areas are not just "along 38th street" they are up from it, too. For example, the commercial strip that runs from 38th to 40th along Illinois and the commercial stretch of College Avenue from about 38th Street to 42nd Street. As for converting 38th Street to a 6 lane road with very narrow sidewalks, that suggestion is simply an alternative choice of what you would want to do with the money, it doesn't preclude the use of a TIF to do it. It would cost multi-millions of dollars to widen and rebuild the road, and right now the city would rather invest in the commercial areas and improve the pedestrian infrastructure and the parks (like Tarkington Park). People do live in the area now, and they have historically lived in the area, so I don't think the road in-and-of-itself is an obstacle to revitalization of any of the commercial strips, or for the area immediately along east 38th Street, for that matter.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • 38th Street
    Idyllic IndyJanuary 30, 2013 9:06 AM
    If the City wanted to revitalize 38th Street, maybe they shouldn't have just rebuilt it as a 6-lane road with narrow sidewalks. People don't want to live, walk, bike, or otherwise spend time outside of a car along such a street. How is creating a TIF going to overcome that?
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
    • That Is The Idea
      IndyResJanuary 29, 2013 5:40 PM
      Yes, TIFs are supposed to help increase the tax base due to new economic development in the TIF area. The unfortunate truth though is that in Indianapolis 40% of it's TIFS are entirely dependent upon property taxes or other TIFs.
      Reply to CommentFlag Comment
    • The Targeted Areas Are Not "Rich"
      ChrisJanuary 29, 2013 4:30 PM
      The TIF is designed specifically to help the troubled areas of Butler-Tarkington, Meridian-Kessler, Mapleton Fall-Creek, etc. It is not designed to help the affluent parts of these neighborhoods. Go to 38th Street and Illinois and the area immediately adjacent and ask if it looks "rich," no it looks like a stereotypical ghetto. In fact most of 38th Street from Crown Hill to the Fairgrounds is rundown and the area is unsafe. It is areas like 38th Street that the TIF is targeted to help, and it is not designed to subsidize fancy boutiques in Broad Ripple. Rather, the idea is that the wealthier parts of these neighborhoods will provide enough of base for the TIF to fund redevelopment of the rundown areas.
      Reply to CommentFlag Comment
    • Why help the rich neighborhoods?
      Good GriefJanuary 29, 2013 2:00 PM
      I probably don't know all the details about how these TIF districts work -- but I always thought they are supposed to help see that development occurs in areas where it might not otherwise happen. Why are already great neighbor hoods like Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington, Broad Ripple, Chatard-Forest Hills and others able to benefit from this TIF district when there are so many other neighborhoods in Indianapolis left out that REALLY need help?
      Reply to CommentFlag Comment

      Post a comment to this story

      COMMENTS POLICY
      We reserve the right to remove any post that we feel is obscene, profane, vulgar, racist, sexually explicit, abusive, or hateful.
       
      You are legally responsible for what you post and your anonymity is not guaranteed.
       
      Posts that insult, defame, threaten, harass or abuse other readers or people mentioned in IBJ editorial content are also subject to removal. Please respect the privacy of individuals and refrain from posting personal information.
       
      No solicitations, spamming or advertisements are allowed. Readers may post links to other informational websites that are relevant to the topic at hand, but please do not link to objectionable material.
       
      We may remove messages that are unrelated to the topic, encourage illegal activity, use all capital letters or are unreadable.
       

      Messages that are flagged by readers as objectionable will be reviewed and may or may not be removed. Please do not flag a post simply because you disagree with it.

      ADVANCED SEARCH
      Sponsored by
      ADVERTISEMENT

      facebook - twitter on Facebook & Twitter

      Follow on TwitterFollow IBJ on Facebook:
      Follow on TwitterFollow IBJ's Tweets on these topics:
       
      Subscribe to IBJ

      1. RKW's comments read like a modern "Chicken Little". As a Raintree resident for many years, "Yes, I'm ready for this." Matter of fact, I welcome The Farm because it's a development that compliments our town, brings new and desirable shopping & dining closer (specialty grocer, upscale shops, micro brew pub, etc), offers upscale condos for empty nesters who want to stay in Zionsville, is being planned and constructed by local, well-reputed firms and, of course, provides desirable non property tax benefits. We all knew the Pittman's were going to develop their property sooner than later. That one of the Pittman's will continue to live on the property helps assure The Farm will be everything promised. This also sets a standard for other developers as to the quality of future developments - which should keep an ugly Walmart at bay for decades. As we've no meglomaniac mayor, I seriously doubt Zionsville would ever aspire to over-priced statues or subsidized retail rents. And we already have a very nice public theater, the Zionsville Performing Arts Center, that meets our cultural needs quite nicely.

      2. Do we add (or subtract) these from the bounty we recieve from RTWFL, Daylight Savings Time, corporate tax giveaways, and the crack job IEDC is doing?? Or is Mike going to blame these on Mitch?

      3. Who makes Tater Tots? They would be a good sponsor, because $3 Million for the alleged "Greatest Spectacle In Racing" is taters. Tiny, tiny taters. But at least they are making up something of the losses accumulated over the years in this dying sport. Buttock in seat is certainly not doing it, nor eyeball on TV, as evidenced by the lack of both.

      4. We loved lakehouse and think the Arbor Village would be a great location. It is less than 2 miles from over 1000 rooftops in the 225,000 to over 1 million range. Many people could use the great fishers trail system to bike or walk there. Just an idea Scotty -- but maybe something closer to 3 Wiseman would good. The only microbrew in area is Ram (boring)

      5. True, it's an ESPN production, but ESPN is just another name for ABC Sports, or what used to be ABC Sports since ABC Sports no longer exists as a name. ESPN=ABC Sports= ESPN. ESPN is, according to Forbes "the world's most valuable media property" worth $40 billion. Despite that, they fired 400 people this week.

      ADVERTISEMENT