Historic commission withholds vote on $80M Bottleworks office building

A rendering of the planned Ice Miller building, part of the Bottleworks development, at the corner of Bellefontaine and 10th streets. (Provided by Hendricks Commercial Properties via the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission)

An Indianapolis commission on Wednesday night postponed a vote on updated designs for Ice Miller’s proposed $80 million headquarters in downtown’s Bottleworks District.

Citing concerns about traffic flow and visibility of a parking garage in the proposed structure, the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission tabled its decision on the building’s designs until at least October.

The proposed nine-story building is the sole element planned by Beloit, Wisconsin-based Hendricks Commercial Properties for the third development phase of the Bottleworks District. The current plan consists of about 86,000 square feet of office space and a 309-space parking garage, as well as outdoor amenity space including plaza seating and a dog park.

The Ice Miller building, which would house the Indianapolis-based law firm’s entire local practice, is scheduled to be completed in 2028, replacing the Bottleworks Lot 2 parking site at the northeast corner of the district at 10th and Bellefontaine streets.

The commission first heard the request to update plans in August as part of its preliminary review process, although no votes took place following those reviews.

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At that meeting, members indicated they liked the landscaping plan for the project, but had concerns with the height of the parking garage portion of the structure in relation to the adjacent Bottleworks Hotel, as well as the opacity of the garage’s enclosure. That version of the plan also proposed the building as 11 stories instead of nine, with a less pronounced opening for the its rooftop terrace area.

The Hendricks design team, led by Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects and Indianapolis engineering firm Civil & Environmental Consultants Inc., addressed some of those concerns, but said Wednesday it would work more closely with the city in finalizing materials for the parking garage coverings to better shield it from public view.

Hendricks officials also said the group has worked closely with the city’s Department of Public Works to determine the best location for a turn-in for the building’s parking garage, which is currently proposed for 10th Street.

While the group had not yet received feedback on that plan—which also considers the creation of a U-turn lane to allow for some east-bound traffic to reroute itself to the west after exiting the garage—commission staff said they’d been told by Public Works officials that the idea should be revisited.

Lance Evinger, director of acquisitions and dispositions at Hendricks, told IBJ following the meeting that the company would be revisiting its plans to better accommodate the commission’s suggestions.

“We understand their concerns, and we’re going to circle up to try and address them,” Evinger said.

So far, Hendricks has spent about $350 million through the first two phases of its redevelopment of the former Coca-Cola bottling campus and Indianapolis Public Schools service center, with that work starting in 2017. The company’s original plans called for a $300 million investment across four phases.

The fourth and likely final planned phase of Bottleworks is expected to largely consist of apartments and other residential units. While work on that component may not start for a couple of years, Evinger said it could instead make sense for the third and fourth phases to be built concurrently.

Also during the meeting, the commission discussed whether the scope of an approval would extend to an adjacent lot that has been used for staging throughout the Bottleworks development.

However, that site is subject to a separate request Hendricks will have take to the commission in the coming months. The company said once the Ice Miller building is completed, it plans to “refinish” the lot with paved parking and landscaping.

Ice Miller has been a major tenant in downtown’s OneAmerica Tower, formerly known as AUL Tower, since the building opened in 1982.