By Pete Smith
The dream of affordable senior housing in Carmel has evaporated.
In January Herman & Kittle Properties unveiled a plan to build a new apartment community on the site of the former Glass Chimney Restaurant at 12901 Old Meridian St. in Carmel. The plan was to rent the 40 planned apartments to seniors, with one-bedroom rents ranging from $251-$515 per month, and two-bedroom rents ranging from $308-$633 per month.
Herman & Kittle had applied for financing through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority said Erika Scott, development director at Herman & Kittles Properties. But the company didn’t get it.
“Sadly, this property did not receive the tax credit allocation that we had applied for. It’s a very competitive process, and we just were not awarded the funding,” said Laurren Brown, a spokeswoman for Herman & Kittle.
A spokeswoman for the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority confirmed the large number of applicants seeking the same small pool of funding and said that the application just didn’t score high enough.
Mayor Jim Brainard agreed there is a need for affordable housing for the elderly.
“There is a need for more affordable housing, especially for our older citizens. Any community that wants to succeed at all levels must have a diversity of residents. I believe with our broad vision of building a well-connected, walkable community, we have encouraged the development of such projects. I would also note that on a national scale, Carmel and the Indianapolis metro area was named one of the most affordable major housing markets in the country by the National Association of Home Builders. According to that survey, 95.8 percent of homes that sold in the Indianapolis-Carmel market during the first quarter of 2012 were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $66,900,” Brainard said .
So now owner Jon Jessup of Summit Realty has switched gears and plans to restore the former restaurant and expand it to offer multiple areas for outdoor seating.
During a June 3 Carmel Plan Commission Special Studies Committee meeting, representatives from the company said that JKB Properties plans to renovate the interior and exterior of the former Glass Chimney Building to establish a new restaurant.
JKB Properties representatives did not disclose the name of the new restaurant or the type of food it would serve, but they did say it would be family-friendly and a non-chain business from an established restaurant operator.
The new restaurant will have about 162 seats, a bar and additional outdoor seating with nearby fire pits.
The representatives also said that a new cooking school is scheduled to occupy the former Cooking Greek Restaurant space in the building Jessup owns just north of the former Glass Chimney building.
The representative from JKB properties gave no timeline for when the new restaurant or cooking school would be named. They just said of the project, “It’ll be a success.”
