Hospital gets new use as apartments

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A near west side eyesore is just a memory now. In the place of the old Central State Hospital is a new development that promises to bring people and businesses to the once blighted area. A ribbon cutting Friday symbolized the official opening of the Steeples on Washington.

But it took nearly seven years to get the dream of the development at the site of the old Central State Hospital off the drawing board.

"It will have apartments. It will have some commercial development. We'll have some senior housing, some single family housing, and hopefully some recreational usages," says Maury Plambeck, Director of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development.

This first stage is a $20 million, 144 unit apartment complex. It’s a development that neighbors welcome with open arms.

"We're no different than a lot of other neighborhoods. We deal with urban blight and abandoned houses, unemployment," says Diane Arnold, a neighborhood organizer.

For more than 145 years, the near west side property was Central State Hospital, helping mentally ill Hoosiers. It was once the areas largest employer. But when it closed in 1994, buildings were abandoned and blight moved in.

"And people just kind of figured nothing would ever happen. That it would just sit here as a vacant empty lot," says Arnold.

But developers saw potential in the property.

"How many cities with a million people have a 150 acre blank sheet of paper within two miles of downtown," says Craig Lintner, Senior Vice President of Pedcor, one of the developers of the Steeples on Washington.

The city kicked in just over $1 million for street improvements. And the state is adding $2 million in annual tax credits.

"This is a first step. New people will be coming into our neighborhood. But also some people who live in our neighborhood will also be moving into this facility," says Diane Arnold. An opportunity she says, the neighborhood needs.

Some worried there would be little demand for apartments on the near west side. But already 120 of the 144 units have been leased. Residents begin moving in next week. And if all goes as expected, developers expect to break ground on a $13 million, 62 unit senior housing complex this time next year.