City Committee Green Lights $81M MSA Apartment Tower Project in Indianapolis

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Plans are moving forward for the $81 million, 28-story, apartment high-rise Flaherty & Collins Properties intends to build on a portion of the former Market Square Arena (MSA) site in downtown Indianapolis.

According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the City-County Council’s Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee recommended to the full council that the project be approved.

The recommendation includes a hiring requirement, according to which 30 percent of the workers building the tower must live in Marion County,

According to David Flaherty, CEO of Flaherty & Collins, the company will be able to attain this hiring goal.

“We have a very good track record of hiring locally and training locally,” he told the newspaper.

The committee also proposes that the city provide a 25-year, $23 million bond for the project. $17.5 million of these funds would directly finance construction, while the remainder would be set aside for unexpected expenses. The city is also contributing the land which has been appraised at $5.6 million.

If approved under its current form, the Market Square Tower, which has been designed by Dallas-based RTKL, would be among the 10 tallest buildings in Indianapolis. At 370 feet, the high-rise would also rank as the tallest apartment building in the city.

Plans call for 300 luxury apartments, 500 parking spaces and 43,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Rents for the new residences are expected to range from $1,300 to $2,400 per month.

The developer expects to begin construction in the next few months and complete the project by the end of 2015.

Last July, the city selected Flaherty & Collins’ project out of a total of six development proposals. The other teams vying to redevelop the former MSA site were Keystone Group and Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc.; Buckingham and Kite Realty Group; Browning Investments and The Whitsett Group; Milhaus Development and REI Real Estate Services LLC; and Barrett & Stokely Inc. and Ryan Companies U.S. Inc.

Photo credits: Flaherty & Collins Properties