A 24-year-old's dream for a twisting downtown apartment tower has run into a brick wall. Jaron Garrett couldn't
raise enough money to exercise contracts on the run-down properties he had hoped to redevelop. His contracts have expired
and the buildings are back on the market for sale. Garrett said today that he's still interested in the site northwest of
Washington and Pennsylvania streets, and he holds out hope he can find enough investor capital to build the proposed 25-story
tower. Garrett—who grew up in Indianapolis but now lives in Chicago—had been working since late last year to assemble
properties and design the ambitious plan with the help of locally based WDI
Architecture Inc. But the odds of success were long thanks to the project's scope, its lack of parking and financing hurdles,
as IBJ reported on Sept. 8. What will
work here?
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Welcome to Property Lines, Indy's source for neighborhood real estate news. Your host is Scott Olson, IBJ's real estate beat
reporter. Edited by Cory Schouten.
A 24-year-old's dream for a twisting downtown apartment tower has run into a brick wall. Jaron Garrett couldn't
raise enough money to exercise contracts on the run-down properties he had hoped to redevelop. His contracts have expired
and the buildings are back on the market for sale. Garrett said today that he's still interested in the site northwest of
Washington and Pennsylvania streets, and he holds out hope he can find enough investor capital to build the proposed 25-story
tower. Garrett—who grew up in Indianapolis but now lives in Chicago—had been working since late last year to assemble
properties and design the ambitious plan with the help of locally based WDI
Architecture Inc. But the odds of success were long thanks to the project's scope, its lack of parking and financing hurdles,
as IBJ reported on Sept. 8. What will
work here?
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Good ole' Obamacare. Thanks liberals and those who didn't bother to vote.
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Yes. Blame those who were too lazy to go vote Obama out and those who voted him in again. That's my take on it. I know folks won't get it on the left. OK. Start berating me now!
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Serioulsy, people are AGINST this project? Most communities would be salivating over a project like this. You'd rather have an empty eye-sore gas station and shacks posing as apartments? This project is exactly what BR needs. BUILD IT MR MAYOR. And yes, I am a BR resident, and have been for 20 years.
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As a St. Vincent employee of over 20 years, I am saddened and disheartened by this announcement. Unfortunately, as the healthcare "industry" continues on this political and corporate path, all that St. Vincent Hospital has stood for spiritually for its employees and this community is being sucked dry. I know it truly has no choice. It is not just Obamacare or just competition or just any single thing. This trend started long before I was even born when the government became involved in healthcare and it became an "industry." I grieve for those who will lose their jobs, one of whom may be me, but I also grieve for this hospital which I have served for over 20 years. May God give us and it the grace to withstand the future of healthcare.
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Why do people constantly harp on this issue and act ignorant about what a city population measures? A city's population is the city's population. There is no argument or debate about it. If you want to measure the density of a city--measure it. If you want to measure the size of a metropolitan area, then measure the metropolitan population. City boundaries cover different sized areas--and they always have (though the disparity has probably increased since about 1900 or so when more cities began annexing their surrounding communities). For example, San Francisco only covers 49 square miles while Houston cover nearly 600 square miles. No one argues about the population rankings of either city even though they clearly cover extremely different sized areas. Indianapolis is the 13 largest city by population in the U.S. That is a fact. While the population of a metropolitan area may give you a better sense of how large a community is, as noted, even metro areas can vary widely in the size of geographic area they cover--so that is not a perfect comparison either.
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Quite honestly, i LOVE the ambition & vision of this guy... I just hope he gets this built! Great luck to him...
That said, I never really dug this project. I think a mid-rise matching the heights of the old buildings a few properties to the west would work better.
Anybody know why those issues are not more heavily considered in city planning? A building project like this one would certainly be viable with no parking if such a system existed.
Ever seen Logan's Run? Remember the tubes running from building complex to building complex?
Imagine riding the tram from your building of residence to say, OMalia's, getting your groceries, taking a small cart home on the tram, unloading your goods, putting your cart back on the tram and being done with your shopping. Am I thinking too Jetsons here? - (sad that I imagined this kind of thing as a kid 30 years ago and nothing like it is even in the planning stages)
To Deb - yes, this design would be structurally sound. As mentioned in an earlier post on this project, the design is very similar to the Twisting Torso building in Malmo, Sweden.
I don't necessarily share the opinion that innovative architecture can't happen in Indy. It's just that there needs to be a push for it. Much like the city's movers and shakers have pushed for amateur sports and now the arts, we could have an effort here that promotes innovative architecture in building that is otherwise going to happen. It takes leadership, plus a little funding to award grants to help offset the cost of the design work. Hell, Columbus did it, why can't Indy?
Now, if people in Seattle, of all places, are not keen on the idea of public transit (aside from buses..their system is WAY better than ours), why do you think people in Indy would support it?
There're some billboards on the way into Bloomington where someone wrote something clever about Mitch making a big mistake with Major Moves and how a light rail would be better. I LOVE the idea, but this is Indiana..people won't use it, at least not now. At the same time, engaging in a discussion about mass transit IS a good way to get the ball rolling!!!
The moral of the story, in 2007, gotta have parking if you want to build a residential tower...even downtown...period.
One of the lenders who we have been courting for quite ome time needed us to bring to the table 25M in equity...of that 5M was more towards unforeseen expenditures and other soft costs.
We are still arranging meetings with private capital investors throughout the US to pull together LOI's just in case the properties are still available once enough funds are gathered.
I do appreciate the support from all those on both blogs....
As for parking, we do have a solution for that, but we made a sound decision not to make it public in order not to lose it to another who may be able to hinder those plans...
And lastly, but certainly not in the least of aspects. It was my original intention not to tear down the historic Washington St properties...and with much effort we did try to conceptualize a design that could salvage as much of the facade as possible. But due to many structural issues and unknowns, it did not seem as cost effective to save it than it would to tear down...True there are many vacant lots downtown...but none available as of now that has the same amount of traffic flow and corner visibility as Washington and Penn.
I knew and still know my obstacles before me, as one person mentioned previously...but I still remember that hurdles will always be hurdles...and can always be hurdled.
Thank you all and take care
A rail system linking the airport and downtown I think is a necessity!
I just hope more residents of Indy and the outlying sprawl could embrace a transportation system that isn't conforming so much to the status quo of everyone owning a car (or two). And hope that someday, the conventional car/SUV/PUV/Crossover/whatever will be a transportation relic, LOL.
Still waiting for a transportation blog from IBJ.
So structured parking here tends to be mostly aboveground.
The design was amazing, but its location was all too wrong!
This did not fit in with the urban pattern, now if it was in a different location it would probably work out alot better.
The demolition of an 1850 brick commercial building would have also been a loss to the city(being one of the oldest structures downtown).
I hope we get more out of the box thinking like this, but this project was an utter mess.
BTW, I'v lived in downtown for a few years now and I rarely have to use my car.