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Plans for a major multi-use real estate development in downtown Westfield are moving forward after the project received approval Monday night from the Westfield City Council.
Council members voted 6-0 to approve the $123 million Park and Poplar project, which will be developed by Carmel-based Old Town Cos. and built on 9 acres along the Midland Trace Trail, south of Park Street and between Mill Street and Westfield Boulevard. (City Council member Noah Herron did not attend Monday’s meeting.)
Plans for Park and Poplar include:
- 240 apartments
- 56 for-rent brownstones
- a 40,000-square-foot office building with three stories
- a three-story building with 29,200 square feet of retail and restaurant space
- a 523-space public parking garage for people visiting nearby businesses and attending community events at Grand Junction Plaza.
The original design for Park and Poplar included a boutique hotel that was scrapped in favor of office space.
Mayor Scott Willis told councilors that Park and Poplar “is a really important project” and encouraged them to vote for the project by emphasizing the need for more parking in downtown Westfield. He said additional developments will also feature parking garages to ease the shortage.
“[Park and Poplar] helps create a destination in our downtown area. We don’t have that,” Willis said. “With this development, you’re going to see an explosion in that downtown area.”
Some council members expressed concern about the city’s investment in Park and Poplar—the city is contributing $13.5 million toward the project’s parking garage—and signaled they might be less likely to approve downtown projects in the future.
“Unfortunately, for the rest of the development world, I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Councilor Chad Huff said. “I’ve got, personally, the appetite for one of these, maybe two, and then we’re going to let the free market go where it needs to go.”
Several developments have been built, are under construction or are being planned for downtown Westfield.
Grand Junction Plaza, a 6-acre, $39 million public park, opened in 2021 featuring greenspace, trails, an amphitheater and an ice-skating rink.
Union Square, under construction on the city block south of State Road 32 between South Union and Mill streets, is expected to have dining options, 196 apartments, a 300-car parking garage, 17,000 square feet of retail space and a 40,000-square-foot office and retail building. The project being developed by Carmel-based Old Town Cos. was originally approved in 2019.
Another development in the works, the $100 million Jersey Street project, is planned for 3 acres on the south side of State Road 32, between Mill Street and Westfield Boulevard.
Preliminary plans for Jersey Street call for a 525-space parking garage, 36,000 square feet of office and commercial space, 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 172 apartments, a public plaza, golf cart parking spots and EV charging stations. The Westfield City Council has not reviewed plans for Jersey Street.
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At what point does the mayor begin to concentrate on building roads to accommodate the traffic and adding sidewalks to the west side of Westfield? I am all for developing the downtown area, but the lack of planning to create safe travel, for cars, bikes and pedestrians is seriously lacking. I understand that he did not want to do the eminent domain that Carmel did or the build the roads and construction will come scenario that get the funding and was the standard for Mayor Brainard, but as the fastest growing city in Indiana, the lack of planning, funding and forethought has now become dangerous.
It is time to worry less about becoming a golf cart community on the east side of Westfield and get the funding and planning completed to make our community safe and with a great sense of urgency!
Hope I am wrong but the amount of development East of 31, even with thousands of parking spaces, sure sounds like a traffic nightmare waiting to happen.
Little Westfield is playing catch up and hopefully this is one of many steps forward.
This is a good development for Westfield. It’s concerning to see the council being skeptical. Westfield is riding its growth wave right now. It has only a limited time to leverage that to make major public investments before the city reaches maturity and it becomes much more difficult to do so. Westfield especially needs to build up its downtown, given Noblesville’s historic center and the big and attractional environments Carmel and Fishers have built in their downtowns.
These handouts should stop in areas that don’t need incentives for a mixed unit development. But mayors do receive big donations from the developers, lawyers, bond sellers, and related contractors.
Agree, however keep in mind right now we are in a pretty tough development environment.
Deals are not getting done with any regularity with where the 10 Year is hanging out. If we can get that down in the 3s, I think the equation shifts. That feels like a big if as yields were sticky even when rates were coming down.
Yes, they should. You are correct on all counts. Follow the money.
Build, rinse and repeat. Old Town has one model and it suffers from a severe lack of creativity. The mayor says this will “explode” the downtown area. Maybe or maybe not since these types of developments are becomming a dime a dozen in the greater metro area. If you drive to one and you have no idea if your in Carmel, Westfield, Noblesville, or Fishers.