Fishers planning a new downtown

FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) - Fishers won't stand still after the Town vs. City battle. Town Manager Scott Fadness told 24-Hour News 8, "I think Fishers residents wouldn't put up with that. They want a progressive community and we're going to keep moving forward."

Proof of that is in a new project Fishers just unveiled. It will give the town a new downtown – maybe at about the time Fishers begins its life as the city local voters approved.

Tom Dickey, the Director of Community Development in Fishers, says "probably over the last 25 years, citizens have been talking about a new downtown in Fishers or a redeveloped downtown." The people in Town Hall now have finally found the right circumstances to pull that together. They've chosen Flaherty & Collins Properties to develop a $33 million mixed-use development.

The project will offer 200 luxury apartments, a four-story public parking garage and 25,000 square feet of space for restaurants and stores. It will be built on rarely used open ground between the Fishers Town Hall and 116th Street. It's a little over three acres used during the town's summer concert series or as a parking lot for riders of the State Fair Train.

Since the land is owned by the town, it generates no tax money. Dickey says that will change when the developer takes over.

"There'll be no tax abatements," he said, "So, they're paying full taxes. Those taxes are captured and go back to pay the bonds that help to finance the parking garage and increase the aesthetics on the building." Dickey said, after "the bonds are paid off, then the whole project goes on the tax rolls, and the community gets to enjoy not just the project but the new assessed value in Fishers."

The bond pay-off will take 25 years.

Dickey and Fadness say the development reflects the lifestyle more and more people seem to want in their cities and towns. Younger people, especially, seem less-inclined to want the suburban home their parents had. And, they don't want the commute that comes with it. They want "walkable" downtowns.

"They want to be able to walk to a restaurant, enjoy their time." Fadness said. "Maybe sit outside on a park bench and use their laptop. That kind of environment isn't in the traditional suburban development. It's in a more urban development."

And, he said that's the kind of development that draws new people to a community. Urban amenities in a suburban setting.

"Talent is the utmost resource you have to have. To recruit that young talent, you've got to have a sense of place," Fadness said. "They're going to pick where they live first. And then figure out where they're going to work. We need that workforce here."

This new downtown development will be just one phase of expansion in Fishers. The town has other land, also in front of Town Hall, that's considered suitable for future investment.

Groundbreaking on the first phase is expected in mid-2013. The work should be finished by early 2015. However, the first tenants may be able to move-in during 2014.