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. In my opinion the estridge companies are crooks. They filed bankruptcy on their 'track housing' side of the business two weeks before they closed on one of my clients' homes. When my client first interviewed Estridge as a builder 6 months before, they specifically ASKED about the solvency of their business, knowing that some builders were struggling. Estridge truly misrepresented their financial situation at that time. I suppose I am more unhappy with the whole system than I am with the builder because what the heck==you can file bankruptcy on 'track homes' but still keep building and make money off of 'custom built' homes??? How ridiculous! They are all homes. How can a company be allowed to bilk thousands of dollars from their subcontractors but still be allowed to build houses?? they should have been made to pay back all their unpaid contractors before being allowed to profit from building any more houses! This alone makes them and the system crooks in my eyes. I would never build an estridge home and I would not recommend for my clients either. If they were truly 'bankrupt' how could they afford to keep building homes anyway??? The whole system needs fixed.

      2. I live a couple blocks east of the Angie's campus and my house is assessed for ~$160,000. If I could get that amount, let alone $384,000 (a 140% bonus), I'd sell in a minute. Either Angie's stockholders just got fleeced, or Angie's is getting about a 58% discount on their property taxes, if these properties are actually worth what they paid Mr. Oesterle for them. Which do you think is the case?

      3. Perhaps the IMA board is really to blame! They agreed to hire Charles. They can't seemingly find donors among themselves, or bring in new blood that will support the museums operating budget with an expanded museum and money to provide curators with something to do (ie buy art). The headlines of disarray at the museum and mass firings are hurting the reputation of the museum for some time to come. If people on the board had misgivings, perhaps they shpuld have more forcefully opposed efforts that they have seemingly been unable to fund, like expansion and the costs it has created!

      4. See, I told u Indyman and Dipsicle....this 8 days is overkill. It's barely worth a weekend....great job Tony George! Your dream has been fulfilled....he fans want the I r l back. Thats how good it was.....and that sucked.

      5. I have been in training for a short time now but right off I can see that safety and quality are the number one issues, my experience as of late has been a positive one, the employees along with Jeff the plant manager and the operation supervisor as well as the engineers are a highly motivated group of people, what an asset for the area to have and for company's in need of a quality metal products.

      ADVERTISEMENT