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24 Comments
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The Simon’s (especially Herb) should be rightfully honored for their continued investments into downtown. Many at Herb’s age would be coasting, and I only hope the Pacers and Fever can get back onto their winning ways next season and give him something to hold dear.
Tony C.
+1
Very fortunate to have the Simon’s Group headquarter here.
It would be nice if they could infill the adjacent parking lot or add a facade for a continuous streetscape. Any plans for the large parking lot across Meridian Street? At one time it was a proposed hotel.
Blaming your axe throwing business failure on “Lack of parking downtown” is hilarious.
Exactly. Axe throwing is kind of like going to an escape room. You do it one time with your friends and say “okay that was kind of fun.” And then you probably never think about doing it again. Very little repeat business.
Just another sign that downtown Indianapolis is dead or dying. LOL
-1
I have mixed feelings about this. One of the things that makes downtowns interesting and exciting is the granular texture of the smaller store fronts. When these smaller spaces get combined like this, it’s attractive to large national chains, but it’s unaffordable for smaller local businesses. Look at the street scape around circle center mall and compare it Mass Ave. You can see the difference. You loose the variety and texture and downtown Indy could become downtown anywhere with the same bland large national chains.
+1
+1
+1
+1
Some people like chocolate, some like strawberry. Mass Avenue is great for locals. Convention business requires larger bars and restaurants where a hundred or more can readily meet in walking distance from the hotels. Any effort to revise south Meridian and other blocks near the Convention Center and the convention hotels will benefit the city. Larger conventions will like the expanded facilities that are coming, but they also want someplace those attending the convention can go to dinner and some bar hopping.
Tim S.
+ 1
South Meridian is a key component to developing a fun creative entertainment district.
+1
LOL…a steady stream of stories about the renovation and rebirth of downtown, and Greg S. is tellling us downtown is dying. I recall moving to Indy in 1969, from a suburb of Detroit, and thinking this town was dead. It took awhile, but eventually there was more than St. Elmos and the now closed King Cole. Then South Meridian Street exploded, and the renovated train station. Downtown will come around again. It’s not dying; it’s being reborn into something else. May be with less violence and shooting.
I suspect axe throwing has largely gone the way of riding mechanical bulls…it was fun for awhile, but eventually, people’s interests change.
I think Greg S. was being tongue-in-cheek, Timothy.
There is so, so, SO MUCH parking in Downtown. Roughly 30% of the land area in Downtown is surface parking lots. It’s almost 50% when you factor in parking garages, and they’re all only about half full during the busiest periods. The only person that Mario can honestly blame is themselves.
Good news and points made above, but there are still too many holes and dead spaces to fill in downtown. It will always be a work in progress (the same goes for any great city space,) but I count this and the Circle Centre redo as real progress. My two-cents on all the above comments?: reroute the rumbling, clunky freight train lines/and trains that create an imposing esthetic and environmental barrier through downtown — haven’t we evolved from that? It has small town written all over it, given there are no passengers, save for the rare passenger train to Chicago. If these tracks brought in people and commuters — that would be a whole different story, but slow rumbling freight trains? There may as well be grain elevators and silos there. Oh, one more thing, does the Union Station clock tower ever work?
Unfortunately, the City does not own or control those tracks. It’s one of the most critical east-west main lines on the CSX/Conrail Shared Assets system. Simply relocating them is not an easy feat, is probably not something CSX would want to do (and isn’t something that the City can compel them to do), and would cost billions of dollars. When it comes to what gets us our biggest return on investment, removing tracks from Downtown would give us almost nothing. I was able to study this issue in a prior professional role and it’s not really a feasible project. It would be far more valuable for us to treat Union Station for its intended purpose: A transportation center. It’s perfectly situated in between major Downtown destinations and would significantly bolster our convention market.
A.R. Good Comments.
David B, The Rethink I-65/70 is looking at the same kind of damage and prodding INDOT to do better.
A R. great comment. I agree, bring back Union Station to its former beauty. Buildings like that aren’t built anymore and we should choose to restore and showcase those parts of our city. I dream of a day I could possibly take a high speed train from Downtown to Chicago for the day. One can dream.
Tbh, it doesn’t even need to be high speed. It just needs to be frequent (every 1-2 hours), be competitive with driving time (2.5 – 3 hours), and have valuable connections (continuing service to Louisville and Cincinnati with intermediate stations, intercity buses, rental cars, and local/regional transit).
Something that blows my mind when I travel internationally is how city center transportation terminals are effectively “Downtown Airports.” They have all of the same amenities and services that airports do and draw similar levels of activity. It’s a massive economic anchor for the cities that have it.
Given the positioning of Union Station and the sheer number of events and conventions that we host each year, it seems wise to connect ourselves directly to nearby major markets that have high GDP and low car ownership (e.g. Chicago).
Both the Simon family and the IHPC should win on this project. Keeping the old building facades yet making a single building is a positive and smart move, and should be commended!