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Tower manager proposes 4th Artsgarden skywalk

J.K. Wall
September 16, 2010
Keywords
Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Development/Redevelopment, Property Management, Proposals, Real Estate & Retail, Retail, Urban development
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The property manager of PNC Center is moving ahead with plans to finally connect the building to the Indianapolis Artsgarden, which stretches over the intersection of Washington and Illinois streets.

Reit Management & Research LLC, based in Massachusetts, made a presentation Wednesday to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission for its plans to build an enclosed pedestrian walkway between the downtown structures.

The $1.2 million project would be half-financed by the Greater Indianapolis Bond Bank by using tax increment financing from the downtown district. Reit Management intends to start construction early next year and finish by mid-2011.

Connecting all four corners of the Washington-Illinois intersection was the original plan when the Artsgarden was designed more than 15 years ago. No one currently associated with the project could say why the fourth connector has never been added.

The Artsgarden opened in September 1995, connecting Circle Centre mall on the southeast corner of the intersection with Claypool Court on the northwest corner.

Attention after the mall opened focused on attracting a retailer to open on the northeast corner of the intersection, where the Conrad Hotel now stands. When the hotel opened in 2006, it was connected to the Artsgarden.

Reit Management said the connection is important to the success of the 16-story PNC Center, previously known as National City Center and Merchants Plaza. The company has been sprucing up the interior and front of the office tower since it took over management nearly three years ago.

It has had to compete more aggressively for tenants because it inherited a gaping hole left by mall owner Simon Property Group, which moved its headquarters one block away to a new building at Washington and Capitol streets in 2006.

“We’ve taken great strides to improve the property,” said Dave Buchanan, the Reit Management official who oversees the PNC Center, which includes nearly 625,000 square feet of rentable office space. “And we recognize the importance of the connector,” he added.

The Metropolitan Development Commission is scheduled to discuss Reit Management’s plans—and the city’s financial commitment—on Oct. 6.

PNC Center is owned by HRPT Properties Trust of Boston, which bought the building in 2005.

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  • TIF Financing?
    TaxpayerSeptember 22, 2010 9:48 AM
    Are you kidding? What will the return to the City/taxpayers be? This will just end up being a property improvement that benefits the property owner.

    That is not now TIF was intended to be used. Shame on the City for allowing such loose utilization of the TIF.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • Only 15 years in the making
    Great ThinkerSeptember 16, 2010 8:38 PM
    Bad Time to be asking for taxpayer money... but I guess under the Ballard Administration which believes they are printing money and have no regard for proper financial stewardship of taxpayer money... I will bet this money is already spoken for in the SLEEZY SCAM on the Taxpayers that Mayor Marine thinks in his mind is a sale of Water Company Assets... hell it is nothing more than a borrowing which should not be under taken unless that money is spent exclusively on the Water System. This is Mayor is selling this city down the road...
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • tower?
    rwhSeptember 16, 2010 2:19 PM
    Only in Indianapolis is a 16-story building called a tower. It would be nice to see a rendering of the proposed connection. This will be tricky since there is such distance to the building entrance.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment
  • finally
    GregSeptember 16, 2010 1:30 PM
    Awesome. This probably is not a big deal to most, but its always bother me to go down the stairs, into the building and then up the escalator.

    I usually walk all the way around through the mall and into the parking garage just don't have to do this.
    Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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  1. 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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