Local buyers plan revamp for vacant Consolidated Building

August 20, 2012
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Consolidated Building IndianapolisTwo local buyers are angling to revitalize a 15-story downtown landmark that has confounded redevelopment attempts since its last tenants departed in the late 1990s. Ambrose Property Group and The Whitsett Group hope to transform the brick and terra-cotta Consolidated Building at 115 N. Pennsylvania St. into 98 apartments with first-floor retail or restaurant space. The developers plan to invest $16 million to acquire and restore the building, betting plenty of folks who work in the trio of office buildings steps away from the Consolidated—Chase Tower, Regions Tower and BMO Plaza—will be eager to live close to work. Ambrose and Whitsett expect to close on the purchase of the building from an affiliate of New York-based Crown Properties in October and start construction in the spring. The Consolidated was built in 1910 as an annex to the adjacent Lemcke Building, now home to The National Bank of Indianapolis, and once contained a vaudeville theater. A seven-story annex was added in 1974. The building’s downfall began in 1992, when anchor tenant Indiana Insurance vacated 10 floors and moved to the suburbs. The last remaining tenants, Downtown Comics on the first floor and The Cozy restaurant on the second, departed by 2000. For much more, including how they plan to finance the project and address the building's lack of parking, read our full story. (Subscription required.)

Photo credit: W. H. Bass Photo Company Collection c/o Indiana Historical Society. Circa 1915.

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  • YES!
    JoeAugust 20, 2012 1:38 PM
    This is truly great news. Hats off to the developers for apparently figuring out how to handle it. Now if only the Illinois Building problem could be solved...
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  • Finally
    rwhAugust 20, 2012 2:11 PM
    This building has been an eyesore for years. The renovation and the adding of housing will add more life to this area. It could be such a nice building in the heart of downtown. I also agree that the Illinois Building also needs to move forward. It's an embarassment to the city to have such large buildings abandoned in the heart of downtown. The City needs to make reusing downtown buildings a priority.
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  • Great News
    Innocent BystanderAugust 31, 2012 12:58 PM
    I am very excited about this project! I used to have to walk by this building every day to go to work and pined over its possibilities. I agree with the commenter regarding the Illinois Building. Here's an idea: Indy Star should take the Illinois Building and make it their own.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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  1. First, the Athenaeum is going to have to get past the hurdle with the Lockerbie residents and the agreement that the parcel would be residential. Second, and in my opinion, this prime piece of property should include parking, PLUS, a black box theater(s), some market rate and affordable artist housing and a plan to renovate and reconfigure the second story theater. I would negotiate to add the DeHaan property surface parking lot into the development mix, place a one story surface parking garage on the DeHaan lot on the street level (for the Dehaan tenants use during the daytime) and add a second story to the garage that would become an addition to the current second story theater and then change the direction of the theater by moving the stage across the alley and on top of the DeHaan lot parking. You can add all the stage elements that are currently missing from the Athenaeum stage to make it more attractive for use by Ballet, Opera and traveling productions. Plus, the theater changes would probably help solve some of the soundproofing issues. Alas,it does not seem to be a part of the strategic plan to conduct a study to determine best use of the property. Seems like the current plan is a quick and easy move that ignores the property best use/potential and any strategic property planning for the effect on future generations.

  2. I recall that MSA's pilings are still in the ground and hard to remove. It’s not likely any proposal will include significant underground construction/parking because of this. Start adding 2 floors of retail, 8 floors of parking and 5-10 floors of possible hotel, and/or 10-20 floors of residential, and you are at 30 floors already with possible expansion of all the uses. But then again I could be wrong.

  3. Accoriding to their website there is no deadline to the Do Not Call list. What is this article referring to??

  4. On what planet are they entitled to this largesse from the stockholders? These people make multi-million dollar salaries: Pay for your own personal travel.

  5. It matters because they're already paid enormously fat salaries: Pay for your own personal travel. Being "taxed on it" isn't a valid excuse--so what? They're still being gifted a raft of luxury perks from somebody else's money on top of an enormous, lavish salary.

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