Developer pitches $220M plan for Mass Ave. Coca-Cola plant
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Massachusetts Avenue could soon be getting a multi-million dollar makeover.
The northeast end of Mass Ave has several stores and restaurants, but it’s not nearly as busy as the other end of the avenue.
Several groups are bidding for the old Coca-Cola Plant at the northeast end of Mass Ave. Indianapolis Public Schools owns the building and put it up for sale last year. IPS told 24-Hour News 8 it has received six bids for the property.
Strategic Capital Partners is one of the developers bidding for the space. It showed 24-Hour News 8 its plans for the area. Strategic Capital Partners is proposing a $220 million project called “Indy Square.” Indy Square would include retail, apartments, town homes, a YMCA daycare, a boutique hotel, and a park. The developer says it would work to preserve the history of the area, but still bring new energy. It plans on keeping the Coke plant building in tact.
“Our design preserves as much of the historically significant portions of the site as possible,” said Desma Belsaas, partner at Schmidt Associates, the architectural design and facility planning team member. “The plan retains the terra cotta facades of the expansion, more than three quarters of the existing square footage (about 288,000 square feet), and the entire original bottling plant.”
Indy Square would also connect Mass Ave to the near east side neighborhoods. The plan includes 1,600 new parking spaces. Eleven hundred of those spaces would be public parking, to help with the parking shortage throughout Mass Ave.
The developer said if IPS accepts the bid, the project would create 1,000 new permanent jobs and nearly 5,000 construction jobs. It also says Indy Square would increase annual property tax revenue by about $5 million.
IPS gave 24-Hour News 8 this statement about the bids on the property:
Indianapolis Public Schools received six bids for the SCIPS Coca-Cola lot on Massachusetts Ave. There were many exciting proposals, and we appreciate the bidding teams’ time and efforts on their submissions. The marketing of this property continues to meet the IPS Board of School Commissioners’ commitment to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars by disposing of underutilized assets. We look forward to reviewing the bids with the IPS Real Estate Committee and Board in the coming weeks to make the best decision for our district and the City of Indianapolis.” – David Rosenberg, IPS Operations Officer
IPS said it has also received two bids from Milhaus, the developer behind the Artistry apartments downtown. Browning, Hendricks and Hageman also bid on the property.
24-Hour News 8 will continue to follow this story.