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A development project planned in Lebanon along State Road 39, south of Interstate 65, could include housing, commercial and retail space and businesses that would support the state’s 9,000-acre LEAP Research and Innovation District.
Fishers-based Patch Development LLC has submitted plans to the city of Lebanon to develop 220 acres south of Hickory Junction, a 95-acre mixed-use development by Noblesville-based Card & Associates Athletic Facilities.
Patch is seeking to rezone the property that is also bounded by S.R. 39 to the west, Tyre Road to the south and John Shaw Boulevard to the east from general business to the Patch Limp Farms Planned Unit Development.
Members of the Lebanon Plan Commission on Monday night voted unanimously to forward the rezone request to the Lebanon City Council with a positive recommendation. City Councilors will learn about the project at a future meeting.
Lebanon Planning Director Ben Bontrager told Plan Commission members that the Limp Farms project would feature six different subdistricts. Limp Farms is named for the family that previously owned the property.
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Plans for the first subdistrict, immediately south of Hickory Junction, would be 24 acres and be dedicated to multifamily housing. The second subdistrict would occupy 3.7 acres at the northwest corner of the project site and could include commercial and retail space and possibly some additional multifamily units.
Bontrager said the third subdistrict would be 31 acres along S.R. 39 and be used to house small-scale commercial, retail or light industrial buildings.
The fourth subdistrict, a 65-acre light-industrial area at the center of the site, would be used to attract businesses that would provide support to larger companies in the LEAP District, which is planned along I-65, northwest of downtown Lebanon. (LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace.)
“This could be a feeder park to the LEAP District, some of those suppliers, maybe lab space,” Bontrager said. “Again, in the LEAP District, we’re going to see some of the larger users, and this is more of an intimate setting with smaller users.”
Larger facilities are planned in the fifth subdistrict on the southeast side of the development. The current plan calls for buildings sized from 200,000 square feet to 800,000 square feet on the 54-acre parcel.
More housing is planned on the northeast corner of the Limp Farms site in the sixth subdistrict. Patch is looking to include single-family houses, town houses and multifamily housing on the 37-acre parcel, which would neighbor the multifamily housing in the first subdistrict and the 92-acre Hickory Cottages built by Greensboro-based Bel Canto at Hickory Junction.
Card & Associates, the Noblesville-based developer and sports complex operator, is continuing to develop and plan its Hickory Junction project north of the proposed Limp Farms site.
Last year, the 200,000-square-foot Farmers Bank Fieldhouse opened at 505 S. SR 39, just south of I-65 Exit 139, and features eight basketball courts, 12 pickleball courts, one turf field and pitching and hitting tunnels.
Bel Canto also opened the 92-unit Hickory Cottages Apartments last year to the south of the fieldhouse along Enterprise Boulevard.
Card & Associates is working with Indianapolis-based real estate developer The Ghoman Group to build two hotels totaling 300 rooms at Hickory Junction. The Ghoman Group plans to spend $70 million to build the hotels, which will include a 100-room Fairfield Inn by Marriott. The brand of the second, larger hotel has not yet been announced.
The developer is planning Hickory Junction’s second phase, which would have 456 housing units and 64,000 square feet of commercial, office and retail space, east of the $31 million Farmers Bank Fieldhouse.
Mayor Matt Gentry announced plans for The Farmers Bank Fieldhouse in October 2021. The site was previously home to a Holiday Inn Holidome that was razed in 2012.
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