The $120 million building will become yet another signature structure in the new Market East district, a section of downtown that until recently featured a sea of parking lots and ramshackle buildings.
The city’s Regional Center Hearing Examiner approved the reduction Thursday. Cummins officials said the change will make the layout of the building more efficient.
Parking on the east side of downtown is becoming harder to find—enough to prompt some rates to rise—thanks to a trio of real estate developments replacing surface parking lots.
Executives of Flaherty & Collins Properties will join city officials Wednesday to turn dirt on the site, kicking off construction of the $121 million, 28-story apartment project anchored by a Whole Foods store.
Officials for the Columbus-based engine maker are planning a $30 million development, including 164,000 square feet of office space, a conference center, parking garage and lots of public greenspace.
The firm has chosen New York-based Deborah Berke Partners to design its $30 million global distribution headquarters that will be built on part of the site where Market Square Arena once stood.
The specialty grocery chain will occupy 40,000 square feet on the ground level of the $81 million development slated to be built on a portion of the former Market Square Arena site.
The area—roughly 14 square blocks—anticipates a passel of new development on and around the former site of Market Square Arena.
The engine maker’s planned global distribution headquarters downtown will seem modest compared to a 28-story apartment complex slated for across Market Street, but the firm has a strong history of promoting breath-taking architecture.
The Indianapolis City-County Council voted 18-9 Monday night to provide up to $23 million in city financing for the project, with the stipulation that 30 percent of the workers hired to build the 28-story building live in Marion County.
A City-County Council committee recommended approval for the 28-story building but only if the developer pledges that 30 percent of the workers it hires to build the tower live in Marion County.
Members of the Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee said they needed more information on Flaherty & Collins’ proposed $81 million high-rise project on the former Market Square Arena site.
The proposed Market Square Tower—if it’s built as planned at 28 stories and 370 feet—will be one of the 10 tallest buildings in Indianapolis.
Cummins spokesman Jon Mills said the company wants to consolidate its two offices in downtown Indianapolis where about 100 employees work in areas such as communications, information technology and investor relations.
City officials are quietly trying to orchestrate what would be a major coup: Landing Cummins as an office anchor for a second phase of redevelopment on the former home of Market Square Arena.
Flaherty & Collins, the developer of the 28-story tower, “would love to have a Whole Foods” or similar grocer as a retail tenant. With one Marsh two blocks away and another under construction nearby, the project begs the question whether the area can support three groceries.
Cummins Inc. wants to expand its downtown Indianapolis presence and is searching for land to construct an office building that would double the space the Fortune 500 company occupies in the city, several local office brokers said.
Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc., developer of the 76-story New York by Gehry in New York City, is teaming with Keystone Group in its bid to redevelop a prime piece of downtown real estate where Market Square Arena once stood.
City officials will have at least four proposals to consider for redevelopment of a downtown parking lot where Market Square Arena once stood. Bids are due to the city by April 22.
Mayor Greg Ballard, in his annual State of the City speech scheduled for Friday, plans to call for new proposals for the downtown site that previously was home to Market Square Arena. The city expects the proposals to include a high-rise building with a major retail component.
