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posts in "USA Midwest"

New Mozzo Rendering

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Milhaus Development

Here is a new rendering of the Mozzo Apartments, which we have proposed to be developed at 531 Virginia Avenue in the Holy Rosary Neighborhood in downtown Indianapolis. The 4-story mixed-use building comprised of 64 units and a corner cafe space are designed to provide flexibility with the new Cultural Trail. North of the corner space, the first floor spaces will be available for residential or commercial uses. The building will include a mix of studios, one bedroom and two bedroom units. We plan to start construction in the first quarter of 2012.

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This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest

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Carmel's Urbanism Realized

Posted on August 23, 2011 by David Leazenby

I gave a tour to a group of Plan Commission members from a Midwestern suburb recently. It was a lively morning capped by lunch on Carmel's Main Street. While highlighting projects on Old Meridian Street, in City Center, and along Main Street it hit me how much development has occurred here recently. How did this city of a relatively small size (appx.80,000pop) transform itself from typical American edge-city/suburb into an icon of small-scale urbanism in just 10 years? Today there are three distinct urban neighborhoods including the City Center/Palladium district, the Arts & Design District (its true "Downtown" in my view) and the Old Meridian District. While there is still a lot of room for more development, all three of them have come into their own in the last couple of years - and in this economic period. Call it vision. Call it leadership. Call it market demand. Whatever it is, its remarkable. See photos of buildings from our tour below. Also, here is a partial list of urban/mixed-use projects completed recently in Carmel that we visited:

  1. Our own Penn Circle to start in 2011 - apartments and retail space
  2. Providence at Old Meridian apartments, townhomes, retail and office space
  3. Sunrise on Old Meridian - Senior Living
  4. City Center Apartments
  5. Residences at City Center apartments, office, and retail space
  6. Old Town on the Monon apartments and retail space
  7. Sophia Square apartments and retail space
  8. Indiana Design Center office and retail space

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This entry was posted in USA Midwest

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Historic Mixed-Use in Fountain Square

Posted on August 02, 2011 by Jake Dietrich

The construction of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, an urban pedestrian and bicycle path connecting downtown Indy neighborhoods, is nearing its completion. In addition to being a great recreational facility for the city, it also has potential for business growth due to the increased foot traffic walking past storefront windows along the Trail. One of the last pieces of the trail that is still under construction is the Southeast Corridor along Virginia Avenue. This section runs right into Fountain Square, a shopping and entertainment district that strongly lives by their slogan “funky, artsy, retro…anything but square.” It is widely considered one of Indianapolis’s most culturally rich neighborhoods.

The commercial anchor to the neighborhood is the Fountain Square Theatre Building, an entertainment, shopping, and office cornerstone for the city originally constructed in 1928. The building saw great success for four decades until it began to slowly see a decline in the late 1960s. However, since the Fall of 1993, current owner Linton Calvert has been restoring the building with the ultimate goal of trying to restore the building's original character as best as possible. During lunch one day, Linton was kind enough to show our Milhaus group around the building. Within the brilliantly restored mixed-use building we saw uses such as entertainment, hotel, recreation, restaurant, café, bar, social gathering, and business. We could easily understand why the building is often the destination of company retreats, weddings, social gatherings, and plain good old-fashioned fun. For more information on the building or facility reservations, please visit their website.

Photos

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This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest

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Sophia Square Anchors Downtown Carmel

Posted on July 27, 2011 by David Leazenby

We had the opportunity recently to tour the new Sophia Square project on Main Street in Downtown Carmel, Indiana. Standing in contrast to its suburban locale, this four-story, 240,000 square foot, mixed-use development by Keystone Construction now anchors the Arts & Design District. What began with the Carmel Redevelopment Commission purchasing the entire block situated on the Monon Trail in 2007 has now resulted in 202 apartments, 40,000 square feet of commercial space, and 400 public underground parking spaces. The building is designed in a "donut" format with a courtyard and pool in the center. Because of the public subsidy in the project, the parking garage and most of the courtyard must remain open to the public. With perhaps the most stylish interior design in this market for an amenity center, Sophia Square promises to attract those creative professionals seeking to be close to the employment and attractions of the Arts & Design District. Apartment leasing is about 1/3 complete in only a few months. In addition, its location happens to be the among the top two busiest daytime stretches of the Monon Trail on weekends. You can't get a better marketing window than that. Check out the pictures below.

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This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest

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Hope on the Horizon for the Motor City?

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Jake Dietrich

During a recent trip to Detroit, I was able to coax a family member into giving me a driving tour of the city. I had visited the suburbs several times, but never had the opportunity to get into the city. My father, who grew up in a small town just outside of Detroit, also went along for the ride. Our reaction to the tour was similar: awe, disbelief, and despair. I knew the state of Detroit was poor at best, but even my father noted the situation has worsened in the past twenty years. We have all seen pictures and heard the news reports on Detroit’s economic state, but one must see it for themselves to truly believe it. The sheer amount of dilapidated and vacant buildings is tremendous, but the fact that it can be found throughout the city is even more disheartening.

The amount of disinvestment in the city makes me cringe when I think about what the city must have been like 60 years ago at the height of the city’s industrial economy. Today, however, more than 50% of residents have moved out of the city due to deindustrialization, leaving over a third of Detroit’s 139 square miles vacant. So many beautiful buildings lie vacant because no one is willing to invest in one of America’s “Dead Cities.” Buildings like Michigan Central, the 500,000 square foot 20 story train depot and office building that has been inactive for over twenty years. Without a doubt a gorgeous building in its prime, the structure is in need of renovations that have been estimated at between $80-300 million to upgrade its current state. Similar cases of neglect and vacancy are all too commonplace throughout the city. Buildings that would make an awesome adaptive reuse or rehab project in another city have little hope for redevelopment because of how long they have stood vacant. While many pieces of property in the city’s downtown has recently been acquired, there is no word on when development will actually begin. So, how does a city with such minimal prospect for growth in the near future make redevelopment and rehabilitation projects happen? Right now the Detroit Works Project, a city-wide redevelopment planning effort, is looking to find some answers to that question. But even they realize that there is no complete magic roadmap to getting the city back to where it was. However, through extensive community involvement and realistic action steps, the DWP aims to create a plan to get the city moving back in the right direction.

Photos

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This entry was posted in Redevelopment, USA Midwest

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Wrigley-esque in Downtown Fort Wayne

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Jake Dietrich

One of the quirky things that has made Wrigley Field in Chicago such a fun place to see a ballgame are the people that enjoy the games from their windows or roof beyond the ballpark’s outfield bleachers. In Fort Wayne, IN, a similar piece of the park’s identity is trying to be obtained.

Just beyond the left field of recently opened Parkview Field, home to the Ft. Wayne Tincaps, will be The Harrison, a multi-family mixed-use building with views overlooking the field, as well as the city’s downtown. The building will be just a piece of Harrison Square, a $110 million downtown mixed-use revitalization effort that includes the ballpark as well as a Courtyard by Marriott hotel and a 900-space parking garage. Included in the Harrison will be 42 residential units, 25,000 square feet of ground floor retail, and 25,000 square feet of second-floor office space. The $18 million mixed-use development will be financed through a public-private partnership. PNC Bank of Pittsburgh was awarded the project, with other partners including Barry Real Estate of Atlanta, as well as two Indiana developers, Mark Hagerman of Hagerman Construction and Simon Dragan of Whitley Manufacturing. Retailers and office tenants will enjoy prime retail space in the heart of downtown, while residents will enjoy high-end units in which they can enjoy Tincap games from their own living room or balcony.

Photos

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This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest

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Top of Chicago...almost

Posted on July 07, 2011 by David Leazenby

It had been two decades since I had visited the observation deck of the John Hancock Center in Chicago. With a few minutes to spare yesterday I ventured up to take in the views from the fourth tallest building in the city. I learned the structure includes the third highest residence in the world today (thank you very much Wikipedia entry). During my last visit it would have been the highest and now it follows the Trump Tower in Chicago and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. When I visit 20 more years from now, I wonder how many more residences will top it. Check out the views from yesterday below.

Photos

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This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest

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Small Town Mixed Use - St. Joseph, Michigan

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Tadd Miller

StRecently I enjoyed a couple days in the small village of St. Joseph, Michigan. It was a great place to take a break from a busy schedule and spend some time with family. I am continually impressed by the vibrancy of the little downtown/main street. You can tell there is a lot of effort, resources and thought put into this small town, creating a truly great place. Of course, the main economic engine here is tourism and proximity to the water.

It is clear from a few of the for-sale signs still posted that the real estate market downturn was hard here, too. There is a condominium building that clearly never got built, as evidenced by the large yellow banner atop a sign for a three-story mixed-use building comprised of first floor retail, second floor office, and rooftop penthouse. The most disappointing part of the trip however was seeing the projects that did get built during the boom time were sprawling golf courses and single family homes that were disconnected from this beautiful downtown core, even though they were easily within walking/bike riding distance from our location. It is really too bad these Benton Harbor golf courses and their surrounding development couldn’t be directly linked and potentially even integrated, as it seems like this could have been a win-win for both parties.

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Beyond 2012 (Super Bowl Legacy, Part 3)

Posted on February 07, 2011 by Milhaus Development

St Clair Apartments halstead mixed useThe countdown on the host committee’s website now reads 363 days. With Dallas soon a distant memory, Indianapolis is now the focus of the NFL for the next season. We have been writing the last few days about the impact of the big game on a neighborhood close to home and where we work. We are seeing a wave of projects and unprecedented investment into this area, a lot of it driven by the excitement, promotion, and investment of the Super Bowl. Even though we understand the NFL is only investing approximately $1.2 Million, the other non-monetary benefits have included the publicity, the celebrity, the ego competition between benefactors, and the focus of the city and state for participation and recognition. Of course, there are the entrepreneurs in the community out there working toward new business opportunities as well. Among the newest businesses, check out the new grocery store on 10th Street, Pogue’s Run Grocer, a food co-op serving the eastside community. It is projects like this that bring neighbors and community groups together.

Those working the hardest today in the neighborhood seem to be the community development corporations trying to get new projects off the ground or turned around. Across the street from the new People’s Health Center which is wrapping up construction soon, more construction just began on the St. Clair Apartments (shown above), which will feature 4,000sf of commercial space and 33 senior apartments in a three-story building fronting 10th Street. Indy-east Asset Development (IAD) and the Riley Area Development Corporation are jointly developing the project and Milhaus is providing development/brokerage services to the team. Check out Halstead Architect's site for some good renderings and a site plan.

mayfair mixed use milhaus Nearby, Milhaus is helping the East 10th Street Civic Association and IAD on strategies for this building (shown at left), known as the Mayfair Building. Further down the street at the intersection of Oakland Street, the East 10th Street Civic Association and Riley Area Development Corporation are co-developing a 49,000sf mixed-use building to be known as Clifford Corners. Milhaus is assisting the team with development and brokerage services. This project is one piece of a completely redeveloped intersection that includes plans for a "Legacy Plaza" and the already completed new Brookside Elementary School. It’s incredible what a community can do with a shared vision, the right tools, and a Super Bowl.

This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest and tagged Super Bowl 2012, East 10th Street

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Finally, the big push for a great neighborhood (Super Bowl Legacy, Part 2)

Posted on February 04, 2011 by Tadd Miller

jeffersion apartments mixed use milhausI was with a small group the other day that was fortunate to hear from Joe Bowling, the “Community Builder” for the NFL sponsored Legacy Project. What an exciting story! Thanks to the hard work of many people starting back in 2005, long before a Super Bowl was awarded, the NFL recognized the opportunity that one game could have on a neighborhood. For many years there has been investment into the east side of Indianapolis, but its story is common among urban areas in the country. As many neighborhoods have experienced, without a mega push and everyone getting focused, even large projects have difficulty producing results. Some may remember the Cub Foods debacle of the 90’s that was supposed to help (which now is a great school after sitting vacant for many years). There has also been the investment and redevelopment of individual projects like the Meadows and Phoenix apartments. But substantial change cannot occur until there is a large community effort with a vision supported by major sponsors and stakeholders. It appears that day is coming very soon for the Near East Side.

Six years ago, a task force was formed through the Near Eastside Community Organization (NESCO) to address quality of life issues. Then, in 2006 the area was selected by the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) to participate in the Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative (GINI Project). The benefits of the Legacy Project will last far beyond February 5, 2012. However, already it has created numerous neighborhood benefits. Among them are the Youth Education Town, an activity center for youth and families at Arsenal Tech High School; the Jefferson Apartments, a $4.2M renovation and expansion of a residential building on 10th Street; and the streetscape improvements we mentioned yesterday. You can read more about them all here. On the next post, we’ll highlight some other things coming up in the neighborhood.

This entry was posted in Project Highlight, USA Midwest and tagged Super Bowl 2012, Jefferson Apartments, East 10th Street

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Older Posts

08.09.10 - Urban Infill Columbus - Buggyworks by Tadd Miller
07.29.10 - Allen Plaza by Milhaus Development
07.20.10 - Cole Noble Neighborhood's Future… by Tadd Miller
07.08.10 - Milhaus at The Greene by David Leazenby
06.29.10 - Developing in transitional areas by David Leazenby
06.16.10 - Rare look inside the Palladium by David Leazenby
05.28.10 - Conrad Hotel – Indianapolis by David Leazenby