Flaherty & Collins to build 28-story glass tower on former site of Market Square Arena
A gleaming apartment tower of silver panels and glass will rise on the site of the former Market Square Arena, aided by an $18 million assist from the city.
In its third try to redevelop the site, the city on Tuesday picked locally based Flaherty & Collins Properties to build an $81 million complex that aims to tap into surging demand for Downtown rental living.
While two other mostly residential projects never got off the ground at the site of the old arena, city officials expressed confidence that Flaherty & Collins has the track record to carry through on its ambitious plan for an eye-catching, 28-story tower. It will sit atop a 500-space parking garage and enough street-level retail space to fit a full-service grocery or cluster of smaller retailers.
Said Mayor Greg Ballard as he unveiled a sketch of the building during a morning announcement at Market and Alabama streets: “This project will alter the way people view Downtown Indy living.”
The 300-unit tower will test the city’s true appetite for upscale rental living. Projected rents of $1,300 to $2,400 per month for units averaging 875 square feet will be the highest in the city when they go on the market in late 2015.
And the yet-to-be-named complex becomes the latest private development to score large subsidies from a second-term Republican mayor, whose administration has become increasingly open to fronting tax dollars to help build prominent additions to the Downtown cityscape.
The city subsidy of $17.8 million will come from issuing bonds, leveraging Downtown’s tax-increment financing (TIF) district. The bonds would be repaid over about 25 years using the estimated $1.3 million in new property taxes generated each year by the project, Deputy Mayor Deron Kintner said.
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