A proposed closure of Grande Avenue in Speedway has more than a few Gasoline Alley businesses riled up. Allison Transmission—which
has plants on both sides of Grande Avenue just south of 10th Street—along with the Speedway Redevelopment Commission, has
requested the road closure.
The Speedway Redevelopment Commission is the group working on major overhauls to the town of Speedway which include enhancements around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to make the place more of a 12-month destination. But Gasoline Alley businesses, including a number of racing related enterprises, said the closure of Grande Avenue will cut off their much needed access to the Brickyard’s front door on 16th Street and hurt their business. Grande Avenue is just north of Gasoline Alley, which runs between Rockville and Cossell roads.
“This is life and death down here for a lot of these businesses,” said Charlie Patterson, who owns seven commercial buildings along Gasoline Alley. “If they cut off our direct access to 16th Street, that will really do some serious damage.”
The proposal was scheduled to be heard at the Feb. 11 meeting of the Metropolitan Development Commission Plat Committee, but Allison officials this week asked for a continuance of the matter to the March 11 meeting. It should be a lively meeting, with a boisterous group of business owners and nearby Garden City residents planning to show up to let their concerns be known.
To read more on this issue from the latest IBJ edition, go here.
The Speedway Redevelopment Commission is the group working on major overhauls to the town of Speedway which include enhancements around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to make the place more of a 12-month destination. But Gasoline Alley businesses, including a number of racing related enterprises, said the closure of Grande Avenue will cut off their much needed access to the Brickyard’s front door on 16th Street and hurt their business. Grande Avenue is just north of Gasoline Alley, which runs between Rockville and Cossell roads.
“This is life and death down here for a lot of these businesses,” said Charlie Patterson, who owns seven commercial buildings along Gasoline Alley. “If they cut off our direct access to 16th Street, that will really do some serious damage.”
The proposal was scheduled to be heard at the Feb. 11 meeting of the Metropolitan Development Commission Plat Committee, but Allison officials this week asked for a continuance of the matter to the March 11 meeting. It should be a lively meeting, with a boisterous group of business owners and nearby Garden City residents planning to show up to let their concerns be known.
To read more on this issue from the latest IBJ edition, go here.
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A good alternative would be to offer to relocate those businesses along Gasoline Alley. Not cheap, not perfect, but an alternative.
Keep the road open and put up a security fence if you're scared. The road is too important to too many other people.
time. Part of the Speedway plan is to retain business and create jobs.
Let's support the jobs our employers, both large and small, provide.
Indiana has made motorsports a key area of focus. The area just south of
the IMS should be very attractive to motorsports industry related
business. Couldn't business on Gasoline Alley consider relocating there
as well?
My understanding is that the closure of Grande Ave. is not important to
Allison because it is part of a redevelopment plan, but rather is part
of the redevelopment plan because its closure is import to retain
business and create jobs at Allison.
No answers, just thoughts.
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Closing Grande would enable Allison to create a safer campus without a road running through it... employees can better access both areas, security issues are reduced and a more conducive environment for commerce and development is created.
Yes, change is difficult, but the Gasoline Alley folks will still have a safe, direct access to the track with little time added to the trip.
You do realize that besides defenseless transmissions, Allisons does quite a bit of work on Military transmissions. The kind of thing that could make it a terrorist target. By closing down the street, you have cut down on the danger of an attack. How tempting would it be to run a semi full of explosives between those buildings and level them both? In addition, as has been stated, it would eliminate the need for employees to go through security checkpoints just to move between buildings.