Town of Fishers announces $33 million mixed-use development

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New structure to bring retail, residential opportunities to downtown

CIF COM Redevelopment

Today, a Fishers resident passing by Town Hall sees an open field in front of the governmental hub. In the future, if all goes according to plan, that resident will see a four-story mixed-use development.

The Town of Fishers formally announced a “finalist” for the development that will take up one of the two fields in front 1 Municipal Dr., off of 116th Street.

The overall price tag for the project?

$33 million.

The $33 million tab buys approximately 25,000 square feet of retail space, 203 luxury apartments for rent, a parking garage with 406 spaces and 16 surface spaces.

Construction is set to begin in mid 2013 and will end in 2015.

Developer Flaherty & Collins Properties was selected to develop the land from a field of six candidates, which was narrowed down to three that went before the town council.

“It was a very difficult decision for the council to choose because the six proposals were all strong,” said Tom Dickey, community development director.

“We feel very confident that where we’re at today, we’re in a good place with that developer,” Town Manager Scott Fadness said, “and we think that there’s no real red flags that we see that would come up at this point, but council still has to weigh this in a public forum and make a decision.”

Dickey said Flaherty & Collins will be footing most of the bill through taxes captured by a tax increment funding district (TIF). The company will not get an abatement on the deal and will pay the taxes on the property.

Dickey said those taxes will be used to pay bonds that helped pay for the investment.

He said at the end of the day approximately 30 percent of the project will be paid for through public investment because the town sees the parking structure as an investment in public parking.

Part of the public investment will go towards increasing aesthetics.

Looking at the retail space, the town wants local retailers to be the focus, with little representation of national businesses.

Fadness believes they’ve struck a balance that allows financial viability for “mom and pop” businesses to get a shot at grabbing up the retail space.

“Revitalizing our downtown is not just about the property taxes that are raised off of that piece of property,” Fadness said. “To attract the type of talented work force that we want to live in our community and to fill jobs, you need a place for them to go. You need a sense of place … Some of this investment downtown is really an investment in I think our overall economic development.”

Fadness considers this phase one of a bigger project. A second building is envisioned to go in the field and area containing the train station and Fishers Chamber of Commerce.

But the town is taking this all one step at a time.

They said the vision for a development that will mirror the first will go in that space, but the town is focused on this first project.

Flaherty & Collins is not guaranteed to land the second building.

Fadness said infrastructure improvements will be made to accommodate the new development.

“Traffic to me is a little bit of a necessary evil … if it’s a ghost town, you’ve got real problems.”

The final proposal will be put in front of the town council and redevelopment commission.

 

 


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