Flaherty & Collins to Develop $81M Apartment Project on Market Square Arena Site

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

City officials have chosen Flaherty & Collins’ proposal to redevelop the former site of the Market Square Arena in downtown Indianapolis.

According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the $81 million project calls for a 28-story skyscraper featuring 300 luxury apartments, 500 parking spaces and 43,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Amenities include a rooftop pool and a green sky window on the tower roof, while the new homes will offer residents panoramic views of the city through floor-to-ceiling windows. Rents are expected to range between $1,300 and $2,400 per month.

The new development will be financed through a combination of public and private funds. Construction is slated to begin next spring and be complete by the end of 2015. Dallas-based RTKL is the architect of the project.

In April, the city has received bids to redevelop the site from five other teams, including Keystone Group and Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc.; Buckingham and Kite Realty Group; Browning Investments and The Whitsett Group; Milhaus Development and REI Real Estate Services LLC; and Barrett & Stokely Inc. and Ryan Companies U.S. Inc.

The initiative marks the city’s third attempt to repurpose the site. In 2004, a group of investors called Market Square Partners proposed a $140 million project that would have brought more than 400 condominiums, 175,000 square feet of retail and 700 parking spaces. Two years later however, the project crumbled after the developers could not to sell enough condos to meet financing requirements. In 2007, the city was presented with another two development proposals. As recession hit, both projects eventually fell through.

Photo credits: Flaherty & Collins Properties