A Bloomington developer is planning a $20-million revival of the former Thomson Consumer Electronics plant
on the city's near east side. The 50-acre Sherman Park property has become an eyesore since the late 1990s, when Thomson moved
the last of the plant's jobs to Mexico. Pinnacle Properties envisions new office, industrial and distribution uses, along
with a neighborhood park. It won't be easy to pull off. Read more here. Pinnacle's experience includes the reuse of RCA's plant in Bloomington, a town that soon could have
another empty manufacturing facility. General Electric plans to close its 110-acre Bloomington refrigerator plant at the end
of 2009. What should be done with these properties?
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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 Bloomington developer is planning a $20-million revival of the former Thomson Consumer Electronics plant
on the city's near east side. The 50-acre Sherman Park property has become an eyesore since the late 1990s, when Thomson moved
the last of the plant's jobs to Mexico. Pinnacle Properties envisions new office, industrial and distribution uses, along
with a neighborhood park. It won't be easy to pull off. Read more here. Pinnacle's experience includes the reuse of RCA's plant in Bloomington, a town that soon could have
another empty manufacturing facility. General Electric plans to close its 110-acre Bloomington refrigerator plant at the end
of 2009. What should be done with these properties?
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The basic idea of nice apartments with parking and retail is a good one, but this design seems overwhelmingly big/tall for Broad Ripple. The size could be disguised a bit with lots of big trees/landscaping, but the complex is too massive to blend in easily. That section of canal between College and Westfield will also need to be upgraded on both sides. Nice apartments facing onto a nice promenade with shade trees/plantings could bring together the canal towpath/Monon recreation, the outdoor seating at existing restaurants, and this project into something that upgrades the whole area. A plan for the whole stretch makes more sense than facing nice new housing onto what looks like a ditch. Is there a plan? Does the public have input? Who pays? The apartment idea seems to be reasonable, but Whole Foods is not a good idea for appropriate retail. Besides the store being physically too big, there are already Fresh Market at 54xCollege and Whole Foods in Nora for fancy groceries. Good Earth and Kroger are within walking distance of the Shell site. There are at least 7 grocery stores within a safe bike ride. Whole Foods would add nothing but traffic congestion. This design is on the right track, but there needs to be more work done to ensure that it blends in with and enhances the existing community. A project that large will set a tone for that whole part of town. It could be a real asset, but only if done right.
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In the best world, it would be scraped clean, remediated, and redeveloped on a smaller scale.
The site isn't useful as a giant manufacturing or warehousing facility because the street grid in the area isn't suitable for large numbers of heavy trucks. (I know...RCA used it that way but it was a neighborhood negative.) Re-use works at the Shadeland Ave. factories (RCA Records, Chrysler, Western Electric, Jenn-Air) because there is excellent transportation access.
Especially since Ikea isn't coming. (Sorry Da Hooey)
2. Casino
3. IKEA
4. New Jail Space
I agree that it would be dangerous to be overly ambitious with this site. It's optimistic but reasonable to believe that urban renewal will continue to creep eastward from downtown and westward from Irvington (Emerson Heights could be an absolute gem, with its wonderful housing stock and tree-lined medians--which isn't to say that it's blighted now, but it isn't maximized) but Michigan & Sherman isn't particularly close to either.
Further, this part of town has high income density (expressed as aggregate household income per acre) because housing density is large. At 8-10 units per acre, even if average household income per unit is only $25,000, that means up to $250,000 income per acre of land. Again, a high proportion of that income will be spent on food and other necessities, much higher if it's 8-10 households than if it's two or three like in the suburbs.
That's why Kroger and CVS spent $millions to build brand-new stores a few blocks away at 10th & Linwood in 2000, and why the dollar stores and pharmacies go places others won't.
(I worked there a long time ago.)